[Fot] floods in australia

[Enquiries Road & Track]

many thanks to all the FOT'ers who emailed us about the floods. we are in
Ipswich where the worst flooding occurred, but thankfully home and cars are
high & dry, and we are all safe. unfortunately our chassis dyno
was completely submerged along with numerous cars etc at our son-in-laws
workshop. numerous people have however lost their lives and/or livelihood.
To give you an idea of the scale of the problem, 80% of the state of
Queensland has been declared a disaster area. Whilst sparsely populated, it
is many times the size of most US States and I'm told equal to France &
Germany combined. About 30,000 homes & businesses are directly affected,
 with many seriously. Some washed away, some completely submerged. Other
areas are now bracing for similar flooding due to the combination of
never-seen rainfall, dams already full and regular king tides making
drainage to sea more difficult.
For the past 2 weeks, most locals have been brooming mud out of house,
stripping plaster walls, re-wiring  etc. In some near-river suburbs, the
entire contents of hundreds of homes has been stripped and dumped. its all a
bit heartbreaking.

Terry O'Beirne