The river is back within its banks, and the flood clean-up has begun. It's amazing how much there is to do. Whole neighborhoods went underwater. Entire households are now set out on the curb waiting to be collected, and a massive army of workers, aided by the army itself, is working 24/7 to pick up all that trash.
Even where the river went down rather quickly, it left inches of mud behind. Last week I was running on the river walk, when it finally reopened a three days after the flood. The beautiful parks were covered in thick, stinky river-mud. The only reason I was able to run through was because the walkways had been plowed. Plowed! Just like Boston is plowing snow, Brisbane is plowing mud.
Some of the clean-up is taking a very long time. In the city, buildings along the river had water in their basements, where all the electrical infrastructure is kept. Nearly ten days after the floods, some hotels and office buildings are still without power, waiting for the equipment to dry out, and the electricity to be approved to be turned back on. The Brisbane river ferry terminals - the quickest and most pleasant way to get around the city - have been ruined, and it will take at least three months to get them back up and running. Of course, the longest clean-up is going to be for the thousands of families who have had everything they owned drowned by the Brisbane River.
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