Biblical Scale Disaster

[InCider]

I don't think that black is his colour but you never know...
You'll not get him wearing heels though!

Good effort on the weekend guys! :super:

Cheers Perry - I never sent you that PM... it seems I was engaged in stopping Bonj being a 5 figure poster and got side tracked. :lol:

 

[Shed101]

Not sure how i managed to do that with my army boots on!

Mate, that's just how hard you worked. I think Daemon will need a new slab laying, we scrubbed right through the foundations.*

































*or TP got a bit carried away with the pressure washer

 

[argon]

Well that was an eventful and long day.

Got up this morning and thought to myself "what if it were my house and family that have to deal with this?" So i just told Mrs Argon and jumped in the car and headed to the closest affected suburb... in my case Yeronga. Parked the car a long way from where the action was and started marching to where the mes was. Found a spot where some coppers were loading up the paddy wagon with tools and they asked if i needed a lift. Sure why not, jumped in the back.

The View from the back of a divvy van with all the shovels and rooms rolling around...travelling in style.


They ended up dropping me on a street that leads direct to the river. The water level was up to ceiling height in most houses and there was thick mud everywhere. Looked like alot of the ripping of everything out of the houses happened over the previous few days and what was needed was just to cart all the wreckage away. There was maybe 50-100 people when i arrived and i just got started shifting piles of gyprock and mud of a guys driveway so the bobcats could pick them up. The owners, especially this one, just looked shell shocked. Can't begin to understand how they felt.

Piles of "worldly possessions" outside most homes.


We just made our way up the road, house by house tossing all the piles into a rotating convoy of trucks. Cause i'm reasonably tall (@6"6' 0r 198 which means my head would have been a good half a metre under water a few days ago) I was typically the guy at the end of the daisy chain tossing the gear over the edge of the truck. Got covered in mud almost immediately and realised my gloves did very little to keep my hands dry and clean. I've done demo work before, but we were 10 tone trucks in under 10 mins. My shoulders were burning from all the overhead lifting... but tonight i feel like i did a decent days work. Took about 8 hours to clean the street up to a reasonable level and allow cars back in tonight. Can't imagine how the residents are going to continue cleaning up once alot of people return to normal life and work.

View down the street while waiting for more trucks


Shame i never met up with any of the AHB boys as it sounds you all had a blast. Maybe next natural disaster hey!!

If anyone has some free time in the coming days/weeks i encourage you to get down there and just pitch in. You don't have to know anyone. It doesn't matter. There's plenty to do and you'll feel a million bucks helping out.

Any way off to grab a pint and put the feet up... going to try and convince work to let us go down again tomorrow. Will see

 

[Shed101]

Pete and the Brisbane and Bremer Rivers called a truce this weekend, and there was olfactory jousting tournament. We do however, know what to get GerniPete for his Birthday!

Yep, a pressure washer. You have never seen a man so possessed by one!

Sorry ... just wanted to make sure we kept the picture on this page, too :unsure:

 

[Rodolphe01]

Through my normal paid work I have had the opportunity to help out with the flood recovery. However, on my day off today I suited up and helped a friends uncle empty his entire house onto the footpath and watch it get carted away by trucks.

I must say seeing this stuff on TV is incredible, but being amongst it, seeing the houses from entire streets emptied onto footpaths, the scene resembling a muddy stinking landfill site with trucks everywhere and all is just harrowing - and that is only property damage, the situation in other towns where it was flash flooding and people were swept away is infinitely worse.

Huge props to the people who have lost everything and loved ones, the volunteers, the volunteers that keep everyone fed and watered and the emergency services and other government agencies.

 

[InCider]

Great post and pics Argon. If we were in their shoes not we'd be grateful that anyone turned up. Makes you tingle at the magic of the kindest of human nature in display.

At a later stage of our cleaning today I felt a stabbing pain in my heel, as I had just whacked it against some dexion shelving. I was in the sewing room of a clothing factory at New Farm. Inside it was all wet and we were pushing water uphill with brooms in the sweaty heat of the day to get it outside to the loading dock and out of the building. I bumped my heel again in the dim light and took a chance look around to see what I'd bumped against. It was BLOODY TIDAL PETE, grinning ear to ear, whacking me with his broom. I near wet myself with laughter. Good times.

Well that was an eventful and long day.

Got up this morning and thought to myself "what if it were my house and family that have to deal with this?" So i just told Mrs Argon and jumped in the car and headed to the closest affected suburb... in my case Yeronga. Parked the car a long way from where the action was and started marching to where the mes was. Found a spot where some coppers were loading up the paddy wagon with tools and they asked if i needed a lift. Sure why not, jumped in the back.

The View from the back of a divvy van with all the shovels and rooms rolling around...travelling in style.
View attachment 43349

They ended up dropping me on a street that leads direct to the river. The water level was up to ceiling height in most houses and there was thick mud everywhere. Looked like alot of the ripping of everything out of the houses happened over the previous few days and what was needed was just to cart all the wreckage away. There was maybe 50-100 people when i arrived and i just got started shifting piles of gyprock and mud of a guys driveway so the bobcats could pick them up. The owners, especially this one, just looked shell shocked. Can't begin to understand how they felt.

Piles of "worldly possessions" outside most homes.
View attachment 43350

We just made our way up the road, house by house tossing all the piles into a rotating convoy of trucks. Cause i'm reasonably tall (@6"6' 0r 198 which means my head would have been a good half a metre under water a few days ago) I was typically the guy at the end of the daisy chain tossing the gear over the edge of the truck. Got covered in mud almost immediately and realised my gloves did very little to keep my hands dry and clean. I've done demo work before, but we were 10 tone trucks in under 10 mins. My shoulders were burning from all the overhead lifting... but tonight i feel like i did a decent days work. Took about 8 hours to clean the street up to a reasonable level and allow cars back in tonight. Can't imagine how the residents are going to continue cleaning up once alot of people return to normal life and work.

View down the street while waiting for more trucks
View attachment 43351

Shame i never met up with any of the AHB boys as it sounds you all had a blast. Maybe next natural disaster hey!!

If anyone has some free time in the coming days/weeks i encourage you to get down there and just pitch in. You don't have to know anyone. It doesn't matter. There's plenty to do and you'll feel a million bucks helping out.

Any way off to grab a pint and put the feet up... going to try and convince work to let us go down again tomorrow. Will see

 

[user 10246]

As everyone has said, it was a very humbling experience & it is just fantastic to see the human spirit alive & well. As sad as it was, in fine Aussie fashion, the day was in great spirits & good humour.

Great people, doing great work. I felt very proud of what we achieved & will probably go back to do more over the next few weeks.

Was great to meet some of you guys & have a beer & some laughs too.

Thanks BD & Bonj for hosting us, was a real treat.

Take care
Goldy

 

[daemon]

A very, very big thanks to the crew who turned up to help on Saturday, you've made a tremendous difference. I know you all had to travel and give up most of your weekend but you've saved me many, many hours of work. Hopefully next time we meet it'll be the opposite where we work for 10 minutes and then drink beer all day

I had more help today from a few other mates and I think we nearly have all the hard work tackled. There were more offers of food and drinks doing the rounds again today, it's amazing how much everyone has chipped in to help.



After everyone enjoyed a XXXX Gold we thought we'd try to clone it ourselves. Does anyone know the right % of swamp water?

:lol:

 

[TidalPete]

Just a quick one to give a big thank you to Bonj & family for giving Incider, Shed, & myself a roof over our heads for the night & for their kindness in sharing their hard-to-get food with us the next morning.
Same big thanks to Browndog & family for their generousity on Saturday night. It's been said before but that American Brown was awesome. :icon_drool2:

Very much appreciated fellas. :beer:

TP

 

[Bribie G]

Sorry I couldn't get over at the weekend, I've been commuting to Robina Town Centre for the last couple of days, where the call centre was relocated until it goes back to Fortitude Valley during the week. They had sent all the staff home, and then called for volunteers to relocate to the Coast and man the centre-in-exile. The company has been fantastic - they put most of us up in a resort at Runaway Bay but I elected to commute (caring duties) and they are paying me travelling expenses. Every couple of hours they would raid Woolies downstairs for BBQ chooks, ham, coleslaw, etc and the bosses fed us non stop - the work load was frightening with 40 of us having to fill in for 90 staff, but back to normal soon. At least there will now be jobs still there for the Ipswich guys and girls who couldn't get to work during the crisis.

Hats off to the company, and I know there are other businesses who are really looking after their staff through all this. Makes you realise how much like a family a workplace can be.

The public volunteer program has been suspended for the time being while they send in the heavy mob this week but I'll be on the lookout for any other help I can chip in with.

 

[MarkBastard]

Spent today in Ipswich at the in-laws rental property. What a mess, with 2 storeys completely submerged to the eaves line. I'm told their house made the papers as the poster house for the flood in Ipswich.
Took this photo today which I thought summed it up well.

View attachment 43335

Just curious, in that situation would you just go and rent somewhere else and only worry about your own possessions?

If I was a renter and it happened to me and no one had ever mentioned anything about it being flood prone etc I'd be slightly pissed, and I'd be onto other real estate agents as the waters were rising.

 

[Bribie G]

Just curious, in that situation would you just go and rent somewhere else and only worry about your own possessions?

If I was a renter and it happened to me and no one had ever mentioned anything about it being flood prone etc I'd be slightly pissed, and I'd be onto other real estate agents as the waters were rising.

Interesting point - most tenants are on 6 month or 12 month leases so where would that place them? Also it's unclear from the post whether they are living there or if it's their owned investment property. Another speculation that hasn't arisen yet:

When the shitstorm has subsided, you can bet that the $500,000 properties in the flooded areas will now only fetch say $350,000 until memories fade - and I bet investors will be snapping them up, as they can still rent them out for the same rate as other properties. As Mark rightly pointed out the tenants won't be looking at flood lines on maps when they sign the lease. Any sensible long term tenants will of course have contents insurance so good idea to make sure covered for flood damage.
Also watch this space: I expect whole streets of little old tin and timber houses will be bought up, demolished and replaced with medium rise apartments with a fairly tall ground floor storey for parking only, with the units actually above flood line.

Edit: similar to the many recent developments around your own area, Mark. Could be a good thing, it's definitely revitalised Nundah - couldn't believe the place when I was in the main street the other week, it was more like Toowong, not grimy old bogan Nundah of a few years ago.

 

[MarkBastard]

Interesting point - most tenants are on 6 month or 12 month leases so where would that place them? Also it's unclear from the post whether they are living there or if it's their owned investment property. Another speculation that hasn't arisen yet:

When the shitstorm has subsided, you can bet that the $500,000 properties in the flooded areas will now only fetch say $350,000 until memories fade - and I bet investors will be snapping them up, as they can still rent them out for the same rate as other properties. As Mark rightly pointed out the tenants won't be looking at flood lines on maps when they sign the lease. Any sensible long term tenants will of course have contents insurance so good idea to make sure covered for flood damage.
Also watch this space: I expect whole streets of little old tin and timber houses will be bought up, demolished and replaced with medium rise apartments with a fairly tall ground floor storey for parking only, with the units actually above flood line.

Edit: similar to the many recent developments around your own area, Mark. Could be a good thing, it's definitely revitalised Nundah - couldn't believe the place when I was in the main street the other week, it was more like Toowong, not grimy old bogan Nundah of a few years ago.

Yeah they're all really good points. The way I see it, if you were renting and the house went completely under it would be instantly unliveable and I really doubt many landlords would make any effort to fix it in a timely fashion, so you could probably break lease really easily.

And yeah I reckon that'd the only way some of that land can be used going forward, residential or commercial high rises with only parking on the ground floor.

 

[Yob]

Managed to get the week off (well I didnt actually ask as such) so donning the new gumboots and flying into brissie tonight. Will be staying in Indooroopilly at an unaffected apartment (renting it for the week).

So any of you Brissie boys in that area keen for a catch up and a few brews with a mexican after 'work' will be happy to come say hello.

See you soon Brisbane

 

[winkle]

Managed to get the week off (well I didnt actually ask as such) so donning the new gumboots and flying into brissie tonight. Will be staying in Indooroopilly at an unaffected apartment (renting it for the week).

So any of you Brissie boys in that area keen for a catch up and a few brews with a mexican after 'work' will be happy to come say hello.

See you soon Brisbane

Good on ya, don't think I'll be up for a beer during the week - but there's a brewday on the weekend stillscottish's BD.

 

[Ross]

Managed to get the week off (well I didnt actually ask as such) so donning the new gumboots and flying into brissie tonight. Will be staying in Indooroopilly at an unaffected apartment (renting it for the week).

So any of you Brissie boys in that area keen for a catch up and a few brews with a mexican after 'work' will be happy to come say hello.

See you soon Brisbane

Won't be able to get out after hours unfortunately, but if you find time to drop by the shop/brewery it'd be good to say hi over a few beers - 23+ on tap, so bring a driver.

cheers Ross

 

[Maheel]

I really doubt many landlords would make any effort to fix it in a timely fashion, so you could probably break lease really easily.

what about the reverse where a landlord would have no rent coming in if you break the lease, many are so deep into loans in investment property that no rent might mean "go broke" insurance may not cover loss of rent in this situation.

dont assume all landlords are rich, many provide subsidized low cost housing where they make a loss when you rent their property

it's a tough time for all, rental prices might even go up faster due to shorter supply with many houses un-livable for some time

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

MMmmmm Time to buy some cheap Brissy/Ipswich real estate

 

[MarkBastard]

dont assume all landlords are rich, many provide subsidized low cost housing where they make a loss when you rent their property

How altruistic of them.

 

[Snow]

Guys, huge thank-you to all the brewerhood for all your offers of support and help over the last few days. We lost everything downstairs including the new bar and a lot of brewing gear. Covered by insurance so Ross will be getting plenty of business from suncorp. We are hurting but at least we are alive and have lots of support. Will post a decent account plus photos when I get to a real computer! Cheers Snow.