Kolan River

[aggienaut]

   It wasn't until the howling sideways rain finished that the floods truly began. Sure, streets had flooded with the immense amounts of water that fell locally, but it wasn't until the immense amounts of water that fell inland got here that we learned what flooding truly was.

   Monday morning we all awoke to a nice sunny day. People cautiously began to venture out of their houses and look around at the damage. In the tiny community Avondale (pop. 720), across the Kolan River from Moore Park, this included staring at amazement at the trees that had been twisted and shattered by a tornado which had touched down during the storm and passed right between two houses. The normally placid Kolan River was a raging brown torrent carrying away entire trees ... and a very unfortunate number of hapless cows tumbling down from somewhere up river.

   Fortunately the river is in a relatively deep gorge, because it keeps rising as the hours go by, reaching heights never seen before. Power is out and neighbors are checking on eachother and helping eachother with any urgent repairs.

   The nearest town (and stores), Bundaberg, is twenty kilometers away, across two large rivers. Soon people are saying that the bridge across the Kolan river just upstream, some 60 feet over the normal water level is underwater.

   It's a strange sort of slow motion natural disaster. The sun is out and the winds are calm, but the river keeps rising, and from height places you can see large swaths of fields (and the farm houses in them) disappearing under water. By the evening they're saying it's the largest evacuation in Australian history in Bundaberg, that North Bundaberg was about washed off the map -- the roof of the grocery store had even disappeared under water.

   Wednesday, with the waters falling John decided to see if he could get across the river. The bridge was by-now clear of water again, and looked fine though thoroughly caked in brown mud. The road was blocked off by the roadhouse, and the roadhouse owner / local volunteer emergency services coordinator was arguing with some people:
   "No, I can't let you across mate, it's a liability"
   "This is an EMERGENCY! And I need to get across to get medication for my wife!"
   "I'm sorry sir but I can't let anyone across that bridge, see where the road is washed out right before it?"
   At this point another man pipes in: "I have a backhoe, I'll bring it back here and fill that hole for you right now"
   "No, you can't do that, it's a state road, it's gotta be repaired by state contractors..."

   Everyone looked up at the sound of someone gunning an engine, and watched a four-wheel drive pickup avoid the road block by going through the nearby avocado orchard, get back on the road, and speed across the bridge and out of sight.


   John went into the roadhouse, which had a little shop with basic groceries. He was shocked to find prices marked up 800% or more on everything. There was even expired baby food for exorbitant prices, and pineapples that looked inedibly unripe. Disgusted, he returned home.

---

   On Sunday I drove across the Kolan River bridge myself, it was still very brown, and the destruction around the banks was amazing. The hole in the road had been filled. My friend Brian*, on whose property we have some beehives, told me these and many other stories about the floods on their side of the river. He has a small field of squash and he had brought a large bin of them to the roadhouse and placed them outside with a sign that said "free" to help out everyone stranded by the floods... but within an hour the bin had been brought inside the roadhouse and was being sold for the tremendous profit of the owner.

   He did have a heartwarming story though. There was a woman who lived nearby in the forests of Invicta, alone while her husband was out working in the mines in Western Australia. With the phones out, he couldn't get ahold of her, and was naturally extremely worried. So a friend of his rode a quad bike through the storm, more than 20 miles across soggy fields and washed out roads, to go check on her for him.

   Natural disasters always bring out the very best ... and sometimes the very worst in people.

*normally I'm opposed to changing people's names, but as he was telling me true stories about real people in the area I figure I better.



This is "Smith's Crossing" over the Kolan River earlier in the year. The road here washed out some previous year and was never repaired.


This is the same spot on Sunday -- except where I took the first picture is deep in the water now, probably about where that log is. I don't know what the river topped out at, all I can find on google is a flood warning on Wednesday advising it was at 18.54 meters (60 ft) and falling.

Comments

[halfmoon-mollie.livejournal.com]

uh. Wow. such an exciting life you lead!

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Well this all was across the river from me. I mainly spent a pretty boring week sitting at home unable to go anywhere. As I said it was surreal because it was a bunch of nice sunny days... with the flood waters slowly rising.

And then it smelled like a swamp and there were mosquitos, both of which I didn't find too exciting ;)

[halfmoon-mollie.livejournal.com]

well, see, we're expecting a foot a snow here in the next day or so. Swamp smells, yeah, maybe not so great and I don't care for mosquitos....stay on the high ground!

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Oh I'll def take snow over mosquitos. I HATE mosquitos. I have bites from three days ago that still itch! ):

[halfmoon-mollie.livejournal.com]

a dab of chlorine bleach or a dab of ammonia takes away the itch. You only need a TINY bit.

[halfshellvenus.livejournal.com]

What a great followup to last week's story!

I hope everything is starting to dry out and settle down, so that people aren't in a perpetual state of worry. And shame on the owner of that roadhouse. I hope your friend took his squash back. :(

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Don't think he was able to. It's just filthy though, really. He _donated_ them to the public, with a sign on the bin saying so, and the other guy commandeered them and sold them for his own profit. And the putting expired baby food on the shelf for a high price? I'm pretty sure that's illegal --- yeah if everyone's desperate maybe put it up for free with a note saying "be advised this is expired! but if you really need it!" ... but you can't SELL expired baby food! d:

[comedychick.livejournal.com]

Dude's a pirate, obviously. ;)

[impoetry.livejournal.com]

Wow. I'm shell-shocked. Life, and nature can be so awe-inspiring in both negative and positive ways.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Yeah it was quite the experience!

[comedychick.livejournal.com]

Agree with the comment about this being a great followup to last week's. Holy crap so much water! It's incredible what some people do in the face of disaster, both good and bad.

[momebie.livejournal.com]

I still can't get over the pictures you posted before with all of the foam. I'm glad things are slowly getting back to normal.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Back to normal, slowly. I drove into Bundaberg for the first time since the storm last night. On the way into town THERE'S A HOUSE IN AN INTERSECTION! And all these boats around town moored to telephone poles.

[myrna-bird.livejournal.com]

Desperate times, desperate measures, but really scalping expired baby food ! That's crossing the line. I'm glad to see pics of the place appearing more 'normal" with the water receding. Incredible group of stories about the floods!

[jensi08.livejournal.com]

Oh mosquitos!! I hate them and they love me. :(

[ryl.livejournal.com]

"I'm sorry sir but I can't let anyone across that bridge, see where the road is washed out right before it?"
At this point another man pipes in: "I have a backhoe, I'll bring it back here and fill that hole for you right now"
"No, you can't do that, it's a state road, it's gotta be repaired by state contractors..."

People are the same all over the world. I can totally see this happening here in NC. Heck, it probably happens here on a weekly basis. :D

[technophobe1975.livejournal.com]

Thanks for posting - I find it so weird that there is this large natural disaster in a first world country and none of our ( UK) media seem to have picked up on it.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Ah no one cares about us over here in li'l ole Bundaberg... AUSTRALIA doesn't even care! The news is all about Brisbane and the state PM is always goin on about Brisbane and Brisbane didn't even flood!!

[jem0000000.livejournal.com]

Yikes. I'm glad you came through okay, and I hope no one was hurt.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Six dead last I heard. Someone was swept off a boat in the Bundaberg marina, someone was killed by a tornado, several were in cars that got swept up in water over roads I think.

[jem0000000.livejournal.com]

Ouch.

[baxaphobia.livejournal.com]

It's amazing the greed that happens when there is a disaster. Sigh. This was an interesting story as yours usually are.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

But fortunately disasters often also bring out the best in people. Lots of stories of neighbours helping eachother out. I guess lsat year when epic floods hit Brisbane a volunteer "mud army" of thousands of people helped eachother and local homeowners dig out from the mud -- volunteering heaps of hours at the relatively unpleasant task of digging out mud, and there was no looting.

[baxaphobia.livejournal.com]

you're absolutely right. Sometimes humans step up to the plate.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

I think kandigurl may have said it better below, that it doesn't bring out the best or the worst in people, it brings out their true colors. When shit hits the fan some people automatically start thinking first about everyone around them, and some people automatically start thinking ME ME ME

[kandigurl.livejournal.com]

Natural disasters are so weird...things you take for granted suddenly destroyed, shut down, lost.

I don't know that disasters bring out the "best" and "worst" in people, as much as they bring out the truth of people.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Hm true true!

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

It kind of reminds me of something I once heard a lawyer say -- dealing with criminal clients you're dealing with bad people on their very best behaviour, whereas dealing with "family law" matters you're dealing with good people on their very very worst behavior. ....he usually does criminal but takes the occasional family law case so he can appreciate his criminal clients better ;)