Inland Tsunami

Thought I would start with a rather calming photo since the rest of my post is anything but.  Yesterday Toowoomba the town in which I live was devastated with what is being called an inland tsunami.  Within minutes a wall of water rushed through the central business district and destroyed over 30 businesses and there are now 8 confirmed dead and 72 missing.  That number of missing is rising hourly.  To understand the immensity of this event you need to know that we live 2000 feet above sea level on the top of the Great Dividing Range.  Toowoomba does not flood.  But yesterday over 100mm rain fell in less than 3 hours and what are normally drainage creeks lined with concrete, so more like drains burst there banks and destroyed the inner city.  Cars were thrown down the streets, some with people still inside them.  A furniture store had its front windows pushed out and furniture washed down the street. Danielle who works not far from the CBD watched lounges and tables float down the street.  Cars sirens screaming in the distance.  I watched on the television this morning a family of 3 floating through a paddock waiting for a rescue.  The latest news was that by the time a rescue chopper could reach them they had floated away.  I don't know the outcome.  A road into our area has lifted and it looks like an earthquake has been and gone.  A mum and her son were washed from a traffic island in a major road and both were found dead metres away.  Another mum and her child at the bottom of the range also perished after being swept away in the flood water.  Queensland is expecting more major flooding today and this flooding is the worst in the history of Australia.  Most of Queensland is flooded and when you consider that the entire country of Europe would fit within the Queensland borders you get some idea of the devastation.  All of our family is safe fortunately, but my heart goes out to the people who have lost so much and to those still stranded on roof tops and stuck in cars throughout the area.  Houses have literally been swept away and I wonder just how people will recover from all of this.