[News] Well, it's not really 'news' anymore, it's more like good pictures of 'news.'

[moonvoice]

National Geographic has pictures of the floods in Queensland which cover a size of land equalling all of France and Germany put together.

I think my 'favourite' is the wallaby.

Comments

Water, Water Everywhere

[perzephone]

I like the floodwater sign :)

What it makes me wonder is, though, why don't we have vehicles equipped with 'exhaust snorkels' here in the US? They would have been true lifesavers during Katrina's aftermath.

Re: Water, Water Everywhere

[moonvoice]

The vast majority of vehicles here don't have them either, unless they're known to navigate through main flood routes (i.e. North of the country / parts of Queensland), and even then it's only restricted to certain 4WDs, service vehicles, off-road drivers etc. They're pretty uncommon, but you still see them from time to time.

It's interesting that they didn't retroactively fit service vehicles with them, though. It's not impossible to do, and that police van was retroactively fitted specifically for these floods.

Re: Water, Water Everywhere

[perzephone]

It's interesting that they didn't retroactively fit service vehicles with them, though. It's not impossible to do, and that police van was retroactively fitted specifically for these floods.

Exactly my point. With all our flooding, why haven't we even heard about these things?

It's a cover-up, I tellya.

Re: Water, Water Everywhere

[moonvoice]

Could it be that a lot of mechanics in the US just don't know about them? I do think it's weird though. :(

[silverjackal]

Those are excellent photos of a very nasty business. Will the soil composition be adversely changed by this also? (In some places an excess of rain can leach salts from the earth to the surface, making land barren.)

[moonvoice]

Yeah, after the severity of drought increasing salinity already, very likely. Though Queensland does tend to do a bit better than places like Western Australia / Adelaide / Northern Territory through floods, because it's more tropical and rainforest-ey.

[silverjackal]

After writing the question it occurred to me it might be a RTFA issue. Heh. Excuse me. I'm somewhat bleary and incoherent this morning. We had a storm move in overnight, and the wind howling and crashing against the house woke me periodically during the early hours. I've downed a pot of coffee, but my comprehension is still lacking. Thank you for answering. I had hoped that this was a case where flooding might actually be enriching (because in some soils it increases the organic ratio favorably), and was sorry to hear that that's not the case. Salination is plague.

[moonvoice]

Salination is a massive issue here, since our soil is so impoverished, we have the thinnest topsoil in the world (a good windstorm can blow it all away in some regions, never to be seen again), and much of our land is prehistoric, ancient, salt-filled, re-appropriated sand-dunes and so on. It's not all the case in Queensland, but salination is definitely something that's a big issue here (and sucks very much).

Sorry to hear about the howling, crashing waking you up in the early hours. That stuff tends to help me sleep more soundly (I am bizarre and always have been), but I know it can give Glen restless nights.

[silverjackal]

Usually a wind or a storm just makes me sleep more deeply too, but this storm was violent enough and sporadic enough that I didn't. The wind would pick up, then die back, then suddenly hit again with a crash that would make all the windows rattle, keen for a while, and then die back again. Repeat a half our later. People's things (like trash cans) left outside were being banged around loudly enough to wake me, too. My one neighbor won't be pleased -- I suspect his trash can has left a dent in his car door because it was thrown against it so violently. The can itself is badly dented, too. For my part I moved the trash bins under the deck (with the barbeque) last night when I checked the forecast. These storms are bad enough that they'll potentially knock over and drag 35 kg of barbeque, so it's best not to leave things unsecured. In some cases siding is torn from houses, too, and woe betide a window left ajar -- it can be enough that the storm will push the window out of the casement.

Walking the dog this morning was "interesting". If he weighed less he might have been blown off his feet, and I had to watch my footing on slippery sections, lest I be blown along like a sailboat before the wind.

[moonvoice]

Oh, sporadic loudness, that sounds very unfun! And Cyrus almost getting blown off his feet! I can believe it. Wind gusts / very windy days are just insanity. We get a fair few of them here (being the third windiest major city in the world), but it's not so bad in Ellenbrook; we're protected by the Westerlies, and the Easterlies are rarely that bad.

[filhotedelua]

It's very close to what is happening here in Brazil (and in my city). Except only of our animal symbols that live near people is a bird that don't really care fro the floods.

Looks like if every year the floods became worst in both sides of the southern hemisphere.

[moonvoice]

I'm sorry to hear that is happening in Brazil and quite close to you as well. It drives me nuts that local news places don't cover this sort of thing elsewhere (unless it's like the UK, and sometimes the US).

[drgnhlr]

That is some epic damn flooding.