Brisbane storms

I got woken up by a child (as per usual last night). However it was interesting as the rain was pelting in and it was all they talked about on the radio. I grabbed the iphone off the bedside and this is what I saw :eek:

Just emptied the rain gauge it holds 60mm but it was overflowing


Mrs ho har:angel:

100+ mm here too. But despite what sounded like furious wind gusts, there is not much debris, everything is just very, very clean. I think I can actually see the grass growing.

We are behind Norman Creek - it came up to our back fence which it also did in '74 - so it was a major rainfall episode last night.

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Well I've been here for 10 years and we've never had anything this bad.

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Captain 10 years in weather is just a moment.
I am not decrying the heartbreak of people who have lost property in this storm , but they are a common occurrence in Brisbane as are cyclones.

I lived in Brisbane from my birth in 1949 to 1975, then 79-80.
In that time I experienced 2 cyclones, in about 1954 and 1973 and similar tornadoes to this one in about 1966-67.

During the The 1973-74 flood I worked for Ford. I had cars on a double decker rail wagon at Clapham Junction , out near Acacia Ridge and 17 Kms from the river and the water was up to the windows of the cars on the top deck. My wife's cousin's house at Fig Tree Pocket was completely underwater for 3 days, and when we drove out to Jindalee all the houses in the vicinity of the shopping centre had a row of tiles displaced by speedboat wash. The water lapped the bridge deck at the Jindalee end. Hard to imagine when you look down at the River about 20-30 metres below.

Brisbane had 2 cyclones in ( I think) 1889 and 1891 which washed away the Victoria Bridge on two occasions.

So it is pretty silly of people to grow very large trees around their houses.

I also recall within 5-10 years of 1973, that the houses at Jindalee started to sell again, often to Southerners who could not imagine the scale of possible events in Brisbane. I recall back then that the council would not release a flood map as "it was bad for business" . However in the old days they knew. My mother's house at East brisbane was built on about 4 metre stumps in 1926, and the water came to within about 30CM of the floor.

I think all houses in Brisbane should be cat 4. I know if I moved there again I would be strapping down the roof and clearing big trees.
It's not only Brisbane. In Sydney the highest gust was at Barrenjoey Lighthouse at AFAIR 212Kmh in the late 19th Century in one of those mid winter "cyclones" that flattened Newcastle last year. Imagine that on the Northern Beaches now.
Regards Philip A

Our roof - on a 1900 era Queenslander, was replaced in 1997 - It is tin, but cyclone rated. Don't know if that was a legal requirement though.

No amount of tree pruning by the electricity authority would have saved the power lines. Large pieces of tree and house were being blown horizontally around the affected neighbourhoods. Enormous storm again last night, huge quantity of rain fell for hours from about midnight. Only damage here (Norman Park) is to my capsicum palnts which are looking a bit dishevelled. In this vicinity not a broken branch can be seen.

Modern houses don't seem to fare well in tropical storms. Old hardwood Queenslanders flex and leak and the atmospheric pressure inside the house is generally speaking equal to that outside so these old buildings tend not to explode from rapid changes of pressure as do modern homes. Rigid brick veneer buildings resist wind pressures up to a point and then fall over. I believe that soft pine frames are not really suitable for areas prone to tropical storms. Kliplock roofs seem to resist to a point and then just peel off in one piece.

G'day Brian Hjelm :)

Yes, I agree that the older hardwood framed homes are better at withstanding storms and high winds, they are also better at resisting Termites:mad: who love pine framed ANYTHING :( but the old type hardwood tressed homes nailed & skew nailed,with good quality nails by hand, seems to be a lot better than the lighter gauge machine nailed homes built nowadays, also the old corrugated iron is/was of a heavier gauge as well, homes were built to a quality and not a company price.

Your home is in an area that I know well, as I grew up from 48-to-64 just across the dip, and in a SW-er, you are quite sheltered by McClintocks old house, used to love watching the storms and rain coming over from behind your place, always gave mum the time to get the washing or the kids inside;)

cheers

My climatic data actually designates Brisbane (Lat 27deg South) as "warm temperate" not "sub-tropical". But the terrain category varies depending on how high up or exposed your site is. So just because there isn't a blanket cyclonic design requirement, if your site is more exposed to wind gusts then you still need all the same tie-down, bracing etc.

It stands to reason that after 70+ years and several cyclones, the only old homes still standing are the well built ones (or the well protected ones). So if you are in an old timber home, then feel confident that it has survived a natural war of attrition to still be there.

For new homes, nothing beats steel! Termites don't eat it, everything bolts together and there's reasonable flex.

I flew over the Gap, and storm damaged suburbs yesterday.
Could clearly see where the storm went through from just to the West of TV towers, through the Gap.
I think you will be there longer than 6 weeks, particularly now with flood damage around as well. Lots of work to do!
Saw one house that has almost been demolished, the roof was about 500 mts away over the hill. Can't believe no one was killed.

Greg