Terrible Flood Tales

[The Hen]

Sometimes there are stories in the paper you really wish you hadn't read.

I'm a bitch, I thought I'd share.

Flood victim Brenda Ross tells sister 'I love you darling' before water came


IT BEGAN as a frantic phone call for help - but ended, minutes later, as a heartbreaking final goodbye.

When Brenda Ross called her sister Beth Fraser on Monday afternoon, she was waist-deep in surging floodwater as her Grantham home collapsed around her.

Ms Ross, 58, pleaded with her sister for help, saying she was trapped with her son Josh, 25, and partner Chris Face, 60, by the unrelenting torrent that was tearing her house apart.

Although Ms Fraser lives only streets away in the small village of just 300 people, she knew it was too late to help.


"[My sister] told me the water was up to her waist," Ms Fraser said yesterday.

"I come from an emergency services background, so I knew what that meant."

As she listened to her sister fighting for her life, Ms Fraser took a deep breath and said her goodbyes.

"I said to her 'I love you darling, I love you very much'," Ms Fraser said yesterday.

Neither Ms Ross nor her only child Josh were strong swimmers.

Their bodies, along with that of Mr Face, were found by specialist disaster identification experts amid the mangled rubble of their home.

"They are all gone, it's as simple and heart-wrenching as that. I've lost them all," Mrs Fraser said.

She recalled how, after speaking to her sister, she spoke to her nephew Josh in a desperate bid to see if there was anything more he could do to save himself, his mother and stepfather.

"I told him to get his valuables together and put them up high, but he told me they were in the loungeroom," Mrs Fraser said.

"So I calmly asked him: 'Can't you go into the loungeroom and grab them?' but he said: 'Bessy, the loungeroom has broken away from the house'."

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/fl ... z1AqrSXpqr

[Sue U]

Fuck, now you've made people miserable on the other side of the world, too.

[The Hen]

And the stories keep coming.

How Jordan died to save his brother




IT IS almost unimaginable the fear 13-year-old Jordan Rice would have felt as the car he and his family were in was pummelled by a wall of water.

But as it began engulfing the vehicle, Jordan, who could not swim himself, insisted his younger brother, Blake, 10, be rescued first.

It was a heroic gesture. One that cost him his life.

And, like so many others who have risked their lives to save strangers, it almost cost the life of one of the rescuers, Warren McErlean.

Mr McErlean thought he got it wrong when he saw a water gauge on a street in Toowoomba rise 20 centimetres in 10 seconds on Monday afternoon.

Five minutes later he was clinging to a pole, dodging cars and wheelie bins after he risked his life to try to save the Rice family.

While Blake was rescued, Jordan and his mother, Donna, 43, perished when they were swept away in the flood.

''When I first saw the car the water was up to the number plate,'' Mr McErlean, 37, a Toowoomba builder, told the Herald.
Weatherzone: Brisbane storm tracker

''I thought I would push it backwards but by the time I walked 20 metres, it [the water] was up on the bonnet and coming up the windscreen.''

Mr McErlean grabbed a rope, tied one end to a post, the other around his waist and set out to rescue the woman and two boys but the fast-moving water swept him downstream.

Another rescuer, known only as Chris, pulled Mr McErlean to safety before tying the rope to himself and approaching the car to grab Jordan.

But Jordan wanted his brother to go first so Chris took Blake, handing him to Mr McErlean part way across before heading back to the car.

''I had the boy in one hand, the rope in the other. I wasn't going to let go but then the torrent came through and was pulling us down,'' Mr McErlean said.

''Then this great big tall fellow just came out of nowhere, bear hugged us and ripped us out of the water.

''When I got back I turned to look at the guy [Chris]. He looked at me and we knew it was over. The rope snapped and the car just flipped.''

Chris, who had been holding Jordan's hand until it was torn from him, flew metres in the air before locking his legs around a post in the centre of the road, said Mr McErlean.

''The others were just gone, just disappeared,'' he said.

[Aard Vark]

My step daughter had met Jordan and his mum. Mall's flat mate is dating the eldest drother.

Both Mall and her mate are really shaken by this. There is nothing we can do as therre is no road between here and Toowoomba.

I feel so pathetic for how I felt yesterday

I was just talking to the bloke and his wife next door.
They said it was so lucky it wasn't during the school year. Imagine if it had of flood water moving that farst and parents trying to get to their kids
Every parent would of been on the road as soon as their heard what was happening. At least happening now most were with their families.

[The Hen]

I'm feeling pathetic with you Aardy.

I was in tears this morning reading hte stories in teh papers.

Not much we can do but hope and be there for you for the long run.

This should take a good two years to bring everything back to normal.

[Aard Vark]

How is this for s kickin the head.
I have put in my insurance claim in. Most insurance companies will only pay a base of $15.000. That is all you get for your hous and contents. I haven't got under the house to check for damage to the foundations. if there is to much damage I can't get any more from insurance.

And as I said before we came out untouched. We had to remove all the floor coverings and the cloths stored in the shed everything was covered in mud and silt. Most of my power tools and other machiery is a right off.
So $15.000 is gone before I look in the other sheds or at the house.

My heart is breaking for the pore buggers who have lost near everything and will get nothinng

[loCAtek]

Be very careful Aardy, check the fine print.

Here in the states, they say the initial payment is 'thus-an-so' without telling you, they'll pay you more, if you just wait. Don't deposit any checks you get right away, they can say you accepted that as ALL they owe you. Keep us posted of every detail. We're here for ya, mate.

[oldr_n_wsr]

Sad, really sad.
And I was complaining about having to dig out of an 18" snowstorm yesterday, a walk in the park compared to what you guys are dealing with

Stay safe

[Lord Jim]

Flooded Australia city "like war zone"

BRISBANE, Australia (Reuters) – Floods left parts of Australia's third-biggest city on Thursday looking like a war zone in need of years of reconstruction, the state premier said, while fresh threats loomed with a cyclone forecast offshore.

The floods across the state of Queensland have killed at least 19 people, 12 of whom died in the Toowoomba area inland, and 61 were missing, the state government said.

Toowoomba and the Lockyer Valley region, west of state capital Brisbane, were devastated by tsunami-like flash flooding on Monday.

Large parts of Brisbane have become muddy lakes, with an entire waterfront cafe among the debris washing down the Brisbane River, a torrent that has flooded 12,000 homes in the city of 2 million and left 118,000 buildings without power.

Aerial views of Brisbane showed a sea of brown water with rooftops poking through the surface.

"What I'm seeing looks more like a war zone in some places," Queensland Premier Anna Bligh told reporters after surveying the disaster from the air. "All I could see was their rooftops ... underneath every single one of those rooftops is a horror story."

More:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110113/wl_ ... lia_floods