Thanks for your update Sam. We are hanging in with you. We are also getting a bulletin from ballerina niece living in Sunnybank (Hmmm!) Qld. While you are under water, we have weirdos running around setting fire to the tinder dry bush down our way around Rockingham and more recently south of Mandurah near Lake Clifton (West Australia) destroying peoples' homes (8), farms and stock. ...David ----- Original Message ----- From: "Sam Heron" <[email protected]> To: "Shirley Walsh" <[email protected]>; <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, January 12, 2011 3:29 PM Subject: [WIG LIST] Wigtownshire area, sq miles > Shirley and Fellow Listers, > Brisbane is recovering too quickly from nine (9) years of drought. Our > local Wivenhoe Dam that was at 17% capacity this time last year is now > almost at the equivalent of 200% full. 100% is seen to be full for normal > purposes; the balance of the same volume again is a reserve allocation of > a storage area as part of a flood prevention measure for occasions such as > now. Excessive rain has caused the dam to be over-filled by in excess of > one million megalitres of water or one million, million litres of water > and because the dam is almost full to its maximum capacity some of the > water must be released immediately in a controlled manner notwithstanding > the flooding that is already happening. Our only blessing is that today's > and tomorrow's high sea tides where the Brisbane River meets the sea are > lesser just now than they will be later in the week so the wall of sea > water that the flood water is meeting is fortunately lesser and therefore > so is the flooding peak level and there! > fore the number of homes that will go under; presently perhaps 40,000. > An example of what our weather is like, we had 150 mm or six inches of > rain on the old scale in just over one hour at our home one day last week > and our back yard quickly flooded and just as quickly went down again not > long after the rain stopped. We have been averaging inches of rain > frequently for a little while now. That is what happened in Toowoomba > earlier this week when it had a flash tsunami-like wave of water metres > high that took many lives and had cars seemingly surfing in it. A > downpour thought to be about 150 mm or 6 inches of rain fell in a very > short space of time, and it fell between established weather gauges, and > therefore got under the guard of the weather bureau personnel and the next > thing that was known was a several metre-high wall of water swept down the > main street of Toowoomba and then down towards Brisbane wiping out towns > and settlements on the way without any real warning. This is how fickle > and powerful Nature can be. > Queensland is in quite a bad way at the moment. It is 1,730,648 km2 or > 668,207 square miles in size and it is now 75% flooding disaster declared > as other major provincial cities and country centres have flooded as well > as Brisbane. It is the equivalent of almost seventeen (17) Scotlands > being flooded. > We are perfectly safe at our place but my daughter and son-in-law who > carefully selected and bought a house that was not affected by our 1974 > Brisbane flood, and that is seen to be our yardstick, have already > evacuated their home yesterday as have many, many tens of thousands of > people. Our 1974 Brisbane flood was seen to be a once in a lifetime > happening but it now seems it wasn't. > We were at the near North Coast (Sunshine Coast) about 100 km or about 65 > miles from Brisbane and we were unable to get back to Brisbane until today > as the roads were cut by flood waters and this story is repeated right > throughout much of the state of Queensland. As soon as we heard the roads > were clear of flooding and open, we packed up and headed home as we had > not expected to get through until tomorrow at the earliest or even perhaps > the weekend depending on whether further predicted rains eventuated. > Everyone here knows many people who have become displaced but they bounce > back very quickly, almost as if in defiance. Houses and offices that flood > can be fixed but the loss of life is hard to take and that is where we are > at just now. To us it isn't really about the floods anymore it is about > the dead and also how many of the missing won't have survived. > I thank everyone for the concern shown, we really are just one big > international family of Jock Tamson's bairns (although in Stranraer we > always said 'weans'). > Sam Heron. > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Shirley Walsh" <[email protected]> > To: <[email protected]> > Sent: Wednesday, January 12, 2011 5:48 AM > Subject: [WIG LIST] Wigtownshire area, sq miles > > >> >> Sam, hope you are all safe and on high ground. Chin up to all. >> On looking at a map of Wigtownshire it shows it to be about 32 x 29 >> miles, about 480 square miles. >> A map of Queensland, Australia, shows the flooded area at : >> http://www.bing.com/maps/?v=2&cp=-26.784818281741096~152.96827574171027&lvl=7&dir=0&sty=r&cid=B45BE63DA52D0EDA!196 >> The distance from Brisbane to Hebel may be around 335 miles, about ten >> times that of Wigtownshire. >> I would gladly accept any correction from you. Shirley > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without > the quotes in the subject and the body of the message