Underwater

 From flood watch to flooded, Brisbane has had a pretty rough day.  Most workers had the day off as flooded streets kept people stranded in their neighborhoods.  In some areas, houses are under water up to the roofs.  Helicopters, including Army Blackhawks, have been providing background noise all day delivering supplies and assessing the scene from the skies.  

You really need pictures to get a feel for it, so here you go!

This car is parked on a road just down the street.  As you can see, the water moved in quickly all day.   The water is supposed to move up at least that amount again before the river peaks at 4 a.m., and even then it could stay high for days.  Brisbane is full of peninsulas, including Kangaroo Point, so the water is creeping up like this on both sides, meaning every inch the river rises can affect hundreds of homes.

9 a.m.

6 p.m. 

1 p.m.

All day things were roaring down the river - we watched tires, refrigerators, docks and heaps of other trash rush by.  Boats without captains were a common sight, but by far the most amazing was the restaurant that floated by.  That's right, a restaurant broke off its attachments and careened down the river.  By the time it passed us it had already smashed into a bridge, which is why it's pretty flat here. 

The appropriately-named "Drift" restaurant.

Free-floating boat & Coast Guard

This morning sandbags were flying, the convenience store had a line out the door, and residents were running to get all their first-floor property into their cars and onto higher ground.  However, once all the sandbagging was done and people felt they had prepared as well as they could, they sat back to watch the day unfold.  These guys were just one group who bought a six-pack and headed to a place with a view.  Even people monitoring their boats were securing ropes with one hand and holding a cocktail with the other.  I guess it makes sense - you can only do so much to fight it, and despite the destruction this really is an awesome event, in the purest sense of the word. 

Now, the helicopters are still flying and the river still rising, but things have settled down for the night.  When we wake up we'll be able to see just how high the river has come.  For now we're sitting on the deck, looking at the eerily-dark CBD, where the power has been turned off to avoid electrical problems as the water comes.

Dark CBD

Normal CBD