It's About The Horse

Clarissa

These poor people in western Queensland & northern New South Wales are really doing it tough. 3rd (or 4th in some cases) flood in 2yrs submersing whole townships containing 300-400 people.

One guy interviewed on last night's news was crying as he told of already loosing all his horses the previous night that were stabled in a low lying area. They knew the creeks would come up & he planned to move them in the morning but by morning the creek was right up through the town & through his home too.

Many cattle & horses & other livestock gone too, either drowned or swept away. Many farms with crops ready for harvest are a total loss. Lots of our hay is grown in those areas that are now under water.

Not sure what is going on in NSW but no doubt similar to Qld since it's the same river systems down there in many areas. Those on the coast of nthrn NSW have had heavy flooding rains for several weeks in a row now since before xmas.

Not good anywhere really.

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Clarissa · Posted: Sun Feb 05, 2012 12:14 pm Post subject:

The airforce & other military are in the process of evacuating the town of St George in SW Qld of it's 3000+ residents. As in previous forced evacuations it's 1 shopping bag of personal belongings per person only. No pets etc. The river is expected to trounce the whole town when it overflows the levee banks later tonight.

That town has a huge cotton irrigation dam too that is threatening to run backwards out it's back end over hills into local creeks making the flood even worse. That's what happened to the Wivenhoe dam when Brisbane flooded this time last year. So the engineers opened the whole front of the dam to save the walls & massive amounts of water poured down to submerge all down stream. No word yet if they will do the same with the dam at St George.

Other nearby towns are fully under water or almost & some have levees that are so far holding by just a few inches. But there is such a body of flood water, no-one is prepared to speculate how it will behave as each wave of flood height passes the levees etc & gets squeezed into channels it would rather not run in.

The flood peak has passed in other towns & the residents are back to ripping up floor coverings & throwing out all their belongings again for the 4th time in 2yrs.

And the wet season has only just started

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Most of L4 PNH achieved WooHoo!! happy10

sandra smith · Member Joined: 01 Apr 2011 Posts: 50

Clarissa
My geography of your country is pretty lacking. How close to you is the flooding? I can't imagine how terrible it must be. Here in Maine, the northeasters are about the worst we deal with---usually. Having said that, I remember 1986 there was some flooding all along the major rivers. Just not close enough to me to feel it.
Hope it all goes well for you and your critters,
Sandra

Clarissa · Posted: Fri Feb 17, 2012 12:16 pm Post subject:

This is a photo I took of the TV showing a view from a helicopter as it flew across SW Queensland last week while reporting on the flood waters slowing engulfing the whole of the center & west of this state. That water is now moving into New South Wales & being compounded by extra heavy rain & flooding that has already happened down there for 2mths. In many parts the flooding is as bad as last year. Towns & cattle, sheep & grain properties that were flooded last year are again under water.

The town nearest this photo was being flooded for the 3rd time in 2yrs & also needing to be completely evacuated yet again.

Luckily I am nowhere near the western areas suffering flooding. The worst that would happen here is like this time last year (the last time I rode Sonny) when the highway was cut several miles either side of me & I had the highway all to myself to ride on. I am always prepared & can sit out anything for 3-4wks, no problems…..unless the power went out. Then I would go stir crazy very quickly due to no internet or TV!!!

It’s so hard to be philosophical about these latest wet seasons. But that’s what’s needed. One has to see it in the context of the wider picture. These are the wet years. We are heading now to the dry years for the next 26 or so with the driest in the middle of that number. Possibly quite bad drought to be expected. I’m sure those who’ve suffered inundation for the forth time in 2 yrs are not thinking like that in the slightest, nor would their insurance companies I suspect.

This is the wet end of a 13yr cycle like a pendulum swinging from wet to dry & back to wet. The sunspot activity drives the major cycles on earth & for Australia these years represent the wet end of the cycle. On the other side of the world you would be having your drier years. At the bottom of the pendulum swing are the benign years.

I have recently looked at some small acreage for sale that is mortgagee in possession selling for a song. Currently it is quite wet in the paddocks with tall cow grass & a certain weedy grass called rats tail which needs to be got rid of. Which is one reason the blocks didn’t sell. However with the wet years all but behind us now those blocks present good value & a modicum of drought proofing that would send their values sky high come the dry years. I am tempted to buy one since it is close to here & I could move progressively.

Anyway all that doesn’t help all those poor people who have had to leave their pets & stock behind to be drowned by floodwaters over the next few days.

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http://clissats-own-page.blogspot.com/
Most of L4 PNH achieved WooHoo!! happy10

Clarissa · Posted: Sun Mar 04, 2012 5:08 am Post subject:

The floodwaters are moving south from Queensland & meeting with new flood waters from HEAPS of rain all over NSW too. About half the water is from the Queensland rain & floods.

There will shortly be more land underwater in New South Wales than the whole of the land mass of France!

The blue rain band has been slowly moving south during the last 3mths.

The flood plains of central NSW are only a few inches above the normal river levels so with just a few inches river rise the whole of many properties gets flooded. That water hangs around for months. Some farmers are putting up miles of levee banks which only need to be 12-15 inches high but which have to be removed after the main floods have passed because they interfere with the normal hydrology of the flood plains. Also the more levee banks are built the higher the floods will be because when the rivers flood out across the plains the water is only a few inches deep but it spreads for miles. So containing all that water within much narrower channels means the floods will be much higher thereby affecting yet more properties that wouldn’t otherwise experience flooding. Also meaning even more stock that needs to be evacuated. Whereas cattle can tolerate a week standing in water, sheep can’t because their wool gets saturated quickly & they can’t carry the weight. So they lay down & drown.

So farmers who know they will be flooded have started moving stock. Some properties are already cut off so stock can’t be moved by the usual method of road transport. So a fleet of helicopters is air lifting sheep a pen of 10 at a time! These are stud stock mostly. Some farmers can afford to move all their stock but not all affected farmers have access to higher paddocks. That stock have to be left behind & will drown! An alternative is to shear the sheep of whatever wool they are carrying & hope they can find water only a few inches deep. Many farmers who can get out of season shearers are taking that option & burying the wool because it is too wet to bale. However that may not stop sheep getting fly blown from being saturated.

The chopper crew doing the filming swept low over a small herd of cattle with some horses in it trapped by fencing in the corner of a completely flooded paddock. One horse was trying to get one foot out of the water which was up to it's belly. Obviously had an injury. A pony standing next to it only had half it’s rib height above the water. That stock were expected to have to stand there for 4wks yet. Of course they will eventually fall down & drown from lack of sleep if not saved in the next few days.

One other problem rearing it’s ugly head is that in many places, mining & gas retaining dams holding contaminated or extremely saline water have been breached with those waters joining the general floods.

_________________
http://clissats-own-page.blogspot.com/
Most of L4 PNH achieved WooHoo!! happy10

Hertha · Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2012 5:53 am Post subject:

Clarissa,

I'm trying to imagine how many broken hearts and lives and long lingering deaths of billions of animals all this entails. Don't think I can.

Thank you for the updates. Hope you are doing okay.
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thebundychick · Posted: Fri Mar 09, 2012 11:16 am Post subject:

This is why i've been posting weather reports on my cytek thread. Because the rainfall has seriously affected the rate of progress.

I don't think people realize the sheer volume of water we've been getting in Australia.

There is a lake a few hours drive away from me, we used to sail on it a lot when i was younger, it holds 36000 megalitres of water. In january 2010 it was announced the lake was completely dry.

As of this year, taht lake is now at full capacity.

The story goes the same all round Australia, the murrumbidgee is a torrent, NSW is copping it, Sydney is flooded,

I cannot stress the scale of the "rain event" Australia has been under not just in the last few weeks, but quite literally the last 12 months.

We are technically in our Autumn season now, but over our summer - we had our air conditioner on fora total of about 4 days... 4 days out of a three month summer?