This has been an incredible week in Brisbane and surrounding regions. Cities and towns north and west of us have been suffering with floods for weeks. Now it's Brisbane's turn and people are feeling shell-shocked and amazed that this has happened here, particularly in the way it's happened. I think Brisbane people never thought this would happen to us because "we've got Wivenhoe Dam to protect us." But realistically there would always have been circumstances which Wivenhoe would not be able to cope with. However, it would have been a whole lot worse without Wivenhoe. Many people's homes have been inundated and as the waters recede an horrific cleanup begins. At our house, we have been very fortunate being high enough not to be directly affected. We lost power for 24 hours and that was a minor inconvenience. All day we hear the sounds of sirens and helicopters. There are houses in our suburb and nearby suburbs which have been directly affected and it will be a long time before normality returns. Some shops are closed, if open there are many empty shelves, particularly the bread shelves. These photos were taken at Wacol Station Road, about a kilometre from our place. I wish all those affected well and hope you can put all this behind you soon. An awful start to 2011.
