Flood update

A quick post to talk briefly about how the floods in Queensland affected us today.  Whilst we have been thankful that we live on a mountain top we have been deluged with rain today. By 6pm we had received 250mm (10 inches) of rain since 9am - more than an inch an hour. It's still going (10pm) and we are all very soggy.

The radio has mentioned all day that towns to the south of us, and to the west have been isolated and cut off - our nearest 'neighbours' down the hill, so we are conscious that waters are rising everywhere nearby. This is of course in addition to the massive and catastrophic floods that are affecting so much of the state elsewhere.

We have a creek, the beautiful Obi Obi, which runs through our town. We watched as the docile creek turned into a tumultuous whirlpool during the day - a day of many firsts. We had never seen it so high; seen water here or there; seen the paddock turn into a dam and so on.  At 8pm tonight we got a call - all hands on deck please as the Library, which resides on the banks of the creek, was in danger of being flooded and we needed to lift books and equipment to higher levels.

We took off and as is typical in a crisis/emergency I didn't take my camera, so the photos are from my phone which isn't brilliant, with the assistance of a tiny torch. But you can see how a team of volunteers appeared and sorted things in less than hour. Our Library is such a precious resource; we hope the rain eases overnight and it remains safe and dry.

Barry moving swiftly in the background...

My foot, from the boardwalk at the back of the Library - the water is about 10 cm (4 inches) away - usually it is about 3-4 metres (9-12 feet).

The top of a tree, submerged in the floodwaters...