Flood in Brisbane: Day 2

My wife woke me up in a panic this morning. Apparently she and my daughter fell asleep exhaustedly by early morning and missed their watch. Luckily my son was awake early and saw that the water have started rising from across the other side of the main street. From what our landlord told us the day before, based on previous occurrence, this could mean that we have less than 2 hours before the water will reach our home. All the neighbours have all sorts of vehicles including pickup trucks, utes and trailers and were busy packing everything they could to evacuate. Shaun, my across the street neighbour also came back to gather everything he could. It was a tough but quick decision – we are going to Plan C – lift as much as we can upstairs and evacuate! I told the family that we will do as much as we could within our limited time and physical abilities but when either two of these happens (1) water reaches boundary of our house, or (2) the power got cut off; we will move out regardless of how ready we are.

It was the quickest few hours of our lives. In between packing the necessities to carry with us, shifting all the stuffs upstairs, lifting all the furniture as high up as we could, we still had to secure the house and consider all safety aspects. We barricaded what we could, blocked the toilet, switch off all electrical points and did everything we could think of in order to reduce the damage to the house – the very least we could do should the worst happens. My mobile couldn’t stop ringing with calls from friends in Brisbane asking how we are doing but of course no one could offer much as we were all in the same boat (thank God not literally!). At the same time the water kept rising fast from across the main street some 200 meters away. By the time we finished packing most of the stuff, both happens at the same time – the water reached our front yard and the power got cut-off! Obviously I didn’t think through my previous plan i.e. Plan B which is to brace the flood - imagine first we had to barricade ourselves upstairs with no power – which means no TV nor radio. Thanks to internet we may survive a while longer but imagine when the notebook batteries ran out and then finally mobile phones. Imagine being stranded in the darkness of the night without any means of communication!

We are now packed. We took as much as we can carry in our car. Comfort has to be our last priority at this point. The irony of just arriving the night before and now we have to pack and be on the move again…

This is the pic from our balcony as the water approaching near.

And these were how we have prepared the house – hope this will do. What we cannot bring upstairs we just raised as high as we could. Whether they survive or not, I leave it to God. We’ve done as much as we could.

One pic for Umar to remember. He kept pointing out to numerous kind of debris we saw floating in the flood water. A baby milk bottle became a grim reminder of losses that could be faced by other families. The murky and filthy water also warned us of the massive cleaning up waiting for us after this is all over.

One by one of the neighbours’ cars started leaving the neighbourhood in the direction of the flow of water. We bid farewell and wished good luck to one another. We never really know each other well but at this time we really felt for one another and felt so close to them – there’s nothing like natural calamity that could really bring people together. Just like when we heard on TV last night that one of the sandbagging centres announced that they have had enough volunteers for the job. I’m touched at the level of kindness of people here. This is such a wonderful country…

These were the last few pics before we left. The police patrol car was also there to make sure we all evacuate. I also noticed that the power was cut-off just now soon after they arrived at the scene. It must be their call somehow. They were just doing their job I supposed.

We took this one last pic to compare when we come back later… hopefully soon…

A quick stop at the neighbourhood McD before we find our way out across the city. It was sad to see all the cars fully laden with personal belongings and people were all in sombre mood probably all thinking about the uncertain outcome of all this.

It took us quite a while to find the way out south. We couldn’t drive southward as Oxley Rd and Ipswich Motorway were both closed. Coronation Drive and Milton Road, the two major roads linking us to the city were also under water. Lucky for us, with the help of my SatNav and my co-pilot equipped with her notebook, checking Google Maps online, we found our way but not without many many “recalculating…” scream from the SatNav. It wasn’t the normal scenery along the way but more of water rising, roads blocked, people scrambling for safety etc. It’s weird also to see on some other unaffected parts of the city, people were going about their normal life. We even came across a lady going jogging! I’m sure she could burn her energy in a better way, like helping others fighting the flood…

We finally arrived at our friends’ Ariff and Wina, a very generous young couple with two kids whom were so kind as to help shelter our family, two other families and 2 “bachelors” for the time being. It’s a nice and spacious house but having 18 people living under the same roof for an extended (and uncertain) period of time could be quite a challenge – thank god we are all good friends… for now at least… hehe… But seriously, we couldn’t thank them enough for their willingness to house us. They fed us well too! They kept apologizing that their house might not be comfortable for us since they just moved in two weeks ago and some of their furniture are yet to arrive. Hey, this is a luxury compared to the Flood Relief Centre!

We all spent the night glued to the TV continuously watching the news channel while the kids turned restless. The worst part so far is probably not the hard physical work saving the house but the emotional stress of not knowing, and feeling helpless. It was really a Support Group. You really have to be in the exact situation to understand or to properly empathize… Nevertheless, as said by Premier Bligh, "We are Queenslanders, We're the people that they breed tough, north of the border..." (it touched me when she choked half way through her speech…). We’ll make it through. We also kill time just like what other Malaysians would do – we cook and eat, and then cook again and eat again. I will not be surprised if we all gain a few pounds if this flood takes a while to subside…

We rested for the night feeling safe but prayed hard for a better tomorrow…

Flood in Brisbane: Day 1

My family and I had been on holiday back in Malaysia last week. It had been raining quite a bit in Brisbane even before we left for KL just before Christmas. It’s rather common at this time of the year around this part of Australia – it’s just the same in Malaysia too. I never thought it would be really bad until one day a friend sent a news link entitled, “Floods "of biblical proportions" hit Australia's Northeast”. I told our friends and relatives not to worry as we are outside of the flood area. Boy was I too optimistic (more of ignorant actually)!

We arrived back in Brisbane on Monday night greeted by yet some more rain. All the news were about the rain and some flooded area in some remote parts of Queensland. The first real “warning” came when I was woken up by a call from my doctor’s office early Tuesday morning. I was supposed to have an appointment with him that morning but his office told me that he was stranded as the area where he lives in Toowoomba was flooding. Toowoomba is just 1½ hours away from where we live and now the flood does sounds real!

My wife went out to get some groceries. She came back with horror stories on how she had to queue up for hours at the supermarket checkout and all bread and milk were running out fast (in Malaysia it would have been rice and sardines gone first!). She had to wait at the neighbourhood bakery for them to bake more bread as people were waiting. When she went to fill up the car, most of the cars she bumped into at the petrol station were already filled up to the brim with their belongings as people were rushing out from the area.

After that everything happened so fast – I was informed that my office was being closed down as some people need to rush home to prepare their house for the oncoming flood. Some of the roads were being closed off as the water level kept rising. I have to admit that even at that point, I still feel of it like a distant event – just like when you live in KL and heard about the flood in Kelantan and Terengganu. Sometime around noon our next door neighbour, who realized that we just arrived home the night before came to tell us about the flood and how our area is going to be hit pretty bad. They are all preparing their house for the flood, and for the worst eventuality of having to evacuate. Then it really struck us – THIS IS FOR REAL!!!

I also learnt that our neighbour across the street have already evacuated and as I stepped outside, the street seems quiet but I can see all other occupants of the houses on our street were busy working on something in their house. Lucky for those with enough manpower in their household as this could be very physically demanding. My team consists of me with a back problem, my wife, my 14 year old daughter, 11 year old son and the youngest one, 6 whom I think would not be contributing much. Anyway, we have to do a lot and we have to do it quick. We quickly change the TV channel to the continuous local news that talks about nothing but the weather and particularly the progress of the flood. It was really bad. At that point 10 died and about 50 missing and it was expected that more than 50 suburbs could be underwater in the next 48 hours. The worst ever flood in Queensland history was in 1974 which was in meteorological measure, a 100-year event. And now, this one is described as being worse than that.

With the limited resources that we had we quickly went into Stage 1 of our effort – moving as many things as we can to the upper floor of the house. To be honest I don’t really know what is required for me to do. I have never had any experience of facing a flood or any kind of natural disaster in my life. It was good to get some tips from the neighbour, some info from the internet and a wife who grew up in Pekan, Pahang, where flood is more or less an annual event. But one thing I learnt fairly quickly was; what do we plan for? Do we move everything upstairs? Do we stock up food and necessities and man the fort? Or do we secure the house then run away and pray that it will survive the torment? Do we plan for the worst or just do as much as we can?

My wife said, do as much as we can – so we start grabbing what we can and put them all upstairs. Kudos to my kids who worked so hard walking up and down the stairs carrying as much as they could. I can carry a lot but dare not make too many trips climbing up for fear of my back and knees giving way; the kids on the other hand can walk up and down as many times as they wanted to but couldn’t carry much. Every now and then we stopped for a break to watch the news – depressing news mostly about how people’s lives got affected by the unforgiving nature – lives lost, homes destroyed and many other damages to infrastructures. One comforting thing is how the government is very involved and dedicated in helping the population. Even the Premier herself came on TV every so often to personally provide updates on their efforts – I was almost certain that she wasn’t reading from a prepared text but rather spoke from her intimate knowledge of the situation and truly showed her passion for what she does.

By early evening my other neighbour who is also my landlord came and suggested for us to prepare for the worst. I remember once seeing a picture on a wall in my office of the 1974 flood – I saw my street, with only the roof of my house showing. But that was the old house on the same spot where our house is standing now and that was a single-storey house then. So, we still have hope. We can move everything upstairs as we had planned earlier and hopefully will dramatically reduce the impact. My kind landlord also offered to help shelter my beloved bike at his brother’s place that sits on a much higher ground in Toowong. I didn’t think twice and 10 minutes later I was on my bike trailing him from behind to his brother’s place. It was indeed a nice big house with a private compound. I hope my bike will be safe there. We also met a young couple there whose house was already underwater. It was a short conversation as I couldn’t bear the thought of leaving my family behind.

Back home, the effort continues. Now we started bringing almost everything upstairs (before that we thought of clearing about 3 feet from the floor only!). With the crew that I have, the piano, treadmill, washing machine, fridge etc. had to remain where they are. At the very least, we elevated the sofa onto chairs, cabinet onto tables and whatever else we could manage to lift up.

You could probably tell from the pic that the sofa is much more expensive than the dining chair… hehe…

By the time we’re done, the upper floor looks like “kapal karam” (shipwreck). This is the pic when we were only half way through.

This is the kitchen half way through Plan A i.e. to only “elevate” the stuffs. Later pic will show everything’s gone.

The plan evolved into Plan B which is taking into account water flooding the entire lower level hence we will totally evacuate the lower level and to defend ourselves on the upper level. We also started filling up every container we can with water.

Even the bathtub became a water reservoir! As far as food is concern we were well stocked as my wife bought quite a lot this morning and we were almost never out of ikan masin (dried fish), sardines and Maggi mee anyway!

By midnight we were very exhausted. My kids however were still going on strong wanting to help. I guess sitting around doing nothing will make them even more nervous. The TV, even though informative, sometimes not very helpful in reducing the worries. Listening to the Premier’s address repeated again and again, “… as we all prepare for the worst disaster in history…” just sends shivers down my spine. More news on death and loss and damage throughout the night.

At 2:00 am I went out with my wife to survey the area. Water was coming in from the river side towards our area but still some 1 km away at least. See below how the road signs were already submerged on the top pic

After that my wife and daughter took the first turn of watch while I tried to catch some sleep.