A SEVERE FLOODING EVENT IN THE SOUTH EAST CORNER OF THE STATE...

We were to go home Friday, and had been hearing of reports of a severe weather event, but on checking the BOM site, the huge cloud of rain just seemed to be sitting of the coast for days not doing much at all...

On Thursday evening, I packed our suitcase ready to leave the following day.  We had a little bit of rain on Thursday but on Thursday afternoon it seemed to fine up quite a bit.  In fact so much so that Barb and I even contemplated having a swim, but in the end decided against it as Barb really wanted me to show her how to use the Snapfish  photobook software.

On checking the BOM site before going to bed, the low sitting out at sea even looked to be weakening so we went to bed not thinking too much about it at all, and certainly not expecting the downpour we awoke to on Friday morning...

I got up to go to the toilet around 4am and the rain was just teaming down.... I later spoke to our neighbour who told me she was up at 1am and it was pouring with rain then.

By the time we got up, the rain was so heavy there was no way, we were going to even get out of the house to pack the car and all reports were suggesting that this was definitely a major weather event and we needed to stay off the roads.  

On checking our rain gauge, we had already had over 7 inches during the night and everything was soaked...  We ran Steve's parents to let them know that we would not be traveling in this weather and all being well we would leave the following morning..

In the last 5 days, we have had 30 inches of rain fall, with 15 of those inches falling in a 24 hour period on the Friday...

It was so heavy all day that we couldn't even leave any doors or windows open as the wind and rain was just blowing through windows and under doors.  Even our kitchen windows which are under the cover of our patio still had water blowing into the window....

There have been so many roads closed around the coast here, but flooding here pails in comparison to the flooding that both Gympie and Brisbane are experiencing...

My friend Barb has also been housebound the last few days, and although they were high and dry and suffered no damage to their home, they were stranded as the whole of Bradman Avenue was under water which meant that they couldn't get out from their place, as the only access for them is along Bradman Avenue..

Creek running through their back yard....

Around lunch time on Friday, they decided to take a walk in the rain and walk through their complex to Bradman Avenue to see how things were there...  There was quite a bit of water laying around on the edges of the road... In fact it was probably knee deep but it wasn't completely over the road...

Taking a walk out in the rain...

By the time they went back out later in the day, there was a big difference with a full tide and water completely over the road and into people's yards.

Chloe also had heaps of water up around her place with the SES rescuing people from the end of her street.  They walked down to check it all out and then later in the day, both Reuben and Dan took the paddle boards down and went for a bit of a paddle..

SES rescuing folk from the end of Chloe's street..

Dan & Reuben paddleboarding in the rain...

Around their neighbourhood...

The water levels were well and truly up at the end of their streets and they were able to get a look at just how bad this was.  It is 10 years since they have had a flood anywhere near as bad as this one.  Some parts of Brisbane flooded worse this time then they did in 2011 although the river didn't rise as high this time... 

Debris though this time is being fold further afield than just Mortein Bay.  Fraser Island has a massive amount of debris and plastics being washed up on their pristine beaches daily and they are now calling for volunteers to come across and help as they can't keep up with the cleaning.  Each new high tide brings another heap of rubbish up onto the previously cleaned beaches.

Southbank was also badly affected this time with the river breaking it's banks and flooding that wonderful family precinct. 

This rain bomb was really catastrophic as it caused chaos all the way down the east coast of Australia from Maryborough in Queensland all the way down into Victoria.

It is just a pity that we didn't get any further north in Queensland as where we come from is so dry..