Thread: TOOWOOMBA SITREP

Just A rundown on the situation here at Toowoomba and nearby areas.
After arriving back in Brisbane after our New Zealand trip in the new year I was unable to travel back to north Queensland because of flooding in central Queensland so I decided to go to Toowoomba to do some work on our house here. I was having a cup of tea at a mates house when the storm hit. Being from north Queensland I did not think much of it, it was just a tropical storm. Forgetting Toowoomba is in a funnelled valley.
I went home that evening to find water had overwhelmed the sewer system of the house and the stormwater had come up The downstairs shower and toilet causing minor flooding with muddy stormwater. Our next door neighbour tells me that there was a river of water 400 mm running down our backyard overwhelming a catch drain and hitting the back of our house. Our house is on the range just below the north side of Picnic Point and we have a concrete slab about two metres wide between a retaining wall and our house and it is open both ends. This had about 150 mm of water running.
I worked to 2 am cleaning the downstairs area up only to be woken at 5 am by another storm which put more water down stairs.
I am a rural fire officer in central and north Queensland and I carry my kit with me in the Ute. I went to the nearest fire station and asked where the regional control centre was and reported there to volunteer assistance. After a drivers job ferrying a senior officer in to Police HQ things were starting to happen for the broader cleanup in the area and the order was given to set up Toowoomba Command - Incident Control Centre. I did Communications on the Incident Management Team for the next four days. We set up a Sector Command in Oakey and one in the Toowoomba CBD to handle the clean up. We tasked about 14 rural trucks in Oakey and 3 urbans in the city. The access to the CBD was only opened Thursday after all cars had been recovered from streams and underground car parks and checked for bodies.
In 4 days our crews completed all 88 houses and a couple of commercial places we had requests for in Oakey which all now smell of citrus disenfectant and 11 commercial in the CBD.
A great job was done by all and we were able to stand down the crews and close the ICC for Toowoomba however ICC are still operating in other towns on the downs as they come out of water.
The story down the valley is that Grantham is still closed o off but the highway is open to Brisbane now so supplies are starting to flow. The range is the boundary of the region here so I don’t know what efforts are in place for the valley but some of the stories are tragic.
Cecil Plains is not accessible yet but we are advised only about 6 homes went under.
This is a tragic story of a rural fighter and his family, please read and do what you can.
http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/floodrelief/hero-watches-as-family-dies-in-grantham-queensland-flood-tragedy-continues/story-fn7ik2te-1225988117780
It makes all other things in life pale into insignificance.
I had a rest yesterday and wll start cleaning mould off walls today.
Its a bit like a war zone with choppers here as the ferry and refuel etc.
Brisbane started its cleanup yesterday and Rockhampton is coming out as well, as we speak.
We were still were doing swift water rescues Friday, with people doing silly things and not driving carefully, Roads are undermined and edges are eroded and saturated.
Please also consider the farmers and other small holdings that have lost fences as well, all help will be appreciated I am sure.
Please Stay safe, take care and do what you can to assist the effort and people.

A lot of the chopper movement over the range of Toowoomba late yesterday and last night was because a biplane crashed in the valley just near Tabletop Mountain. One able to climb out of the wreck, the other more badly injured.
It may not make the news as other things are more interesting now, lik the state Premier has anounced a Royal Commission into the flooding.