Saturday, December 11, 2010

A very quick post tonight.

It is still very wet down this way.

In the north of Victoria a number of towns have been flooded.

Further, north in NSW huge areas are cut off with SES (State Emergency Service) beginning to air drop relief supplies. In QLD there have been a few deaths, (mostly people trying to drive across flooded streams).

Here around Melbourne the flooding has just been at nuisance level.

So we are lucky.

Anyway the rain stopped long enough for me to get out and about and catch these piccies of floodwaters near Yarra Glen.

The flooded fences give idea of the depth of water.

I guess this farmer won't be selling too much produce for a little while
I thought the light behind this abandoned railway trestle bridge was worth a shot.

Thank all of you who left supportive comments about my extract from my WIP on Thursday.

Now, Deb and I are off to have dinner with friends in the city.

15 comments:

Hilary Melton-Butcher said...

Hi Al .. the pictures on the news looked awful and now I can see from your superb pics how extensive the floods are .. beautiful countryside .. if it wasn't under water!

Look after yourself and hope the floods do not get worse .. Hilary

Old Kitty said...

Now that's flooding!! Good grief that poor farm!!

Great pics as always - so much raw and brutal beauty in your pics!!

Enjoy your dinner - and that extract of your wip yesterday was amazing - I really enjoyed reading it- thank you! Take care
x

Anonymous said...

I'm glad that you are keeping your feet dry!

I hate to see flooded farmland and have considerable sympathy for the people whose livelihoods are jeopardised.

Great photos though!

Hope you enjoyed your dinner.

The Words Crafter said...

Your photos are stunningly beautiful, but I wish the circumstances were different. Keeping everyone in my thoughts and prayers.

Hope your dinner out was fun!

Kat Mortensen said...

I haven't been keeping up with the news, but I'm sorry to hear of the floods in Australia. I'll keep you all in mind.

I notice from your profile that you are a Kate Bush fan - me too! Big fan!

Also a fan of Canadian Leonard Cohen - saw him in concert a couple of years ago and it was probably the best concert I've ever seen (and I've seen a few in my time).

Did you know your blog title is also the name of a Columbo episode from the 1970s?

Best,

Kat

Lisa said...

Unbelievable after such a long period of drought. The poor farmers can't win!

Jai Joshi said...

Wow, that flooding looks crazy! I hope things clear up soon. It's so hard with disasters like that hit.

Jai

Rebecca A Emrich said...

stay dry Al! enjoy your evening.

Susan Fields said...

I hope the flooding doesn't get any worse! It's certainly very scary, especially when there are deaths involved.

Myrna Foster said...

I hope the water goes down soon.

Hart Johnson said...

What a hassle! I hope not too many people have lost things permanently. When we lived in Portland we had a couple years of floods, and though WE were fine, a lot of people had ruined property--a real hassle.

Stay dry!

Samantha VĂ©rant said...

Woah! I feel really bad for the farms! the flooding could have repercussions for years!

Ann said...

Fabulous photos as usual. My,that is some flooding....that poor farmer! I love cherries too!

Hope you and yours stay dry.

VR Barkowski said...

The floods are horrific, but your photographs are stunning. I hope the water levels drop soon. My heart breaks for those trapped.

Al said...

Sorry it has taken me so long to respond to your comments it has been the longest week of the year.

Hi Hilary,
It is a gorgeous part of the world.
We live on a nice hill so we at least are safe from floods.

Hi Jennifer,
Hopefully it hasn’t done too much damage. One saving grace from floods is they usually mean good crops over the next few years.
Dinner was yum.
You are welcome, I am pleased you liked it.

Hi Christine,
It is a sad irony that drought in Oz usually ends with floods. It has been especially hard for farmers who have lost their first crops after so many dry years. But if they get through the soil moisture levels usually mean good crops over the next few years even if it gets dry again.

H Words,
Thanks for the praise!
Hopefully the wet season means good times ahead.

Hi Kat,
Kate and Leonard are both fabulous!
I probably saw the episode, of Columbo but I didn’t remember.

Hi Lisa,
As I said above the only saving grace is it usually means the next few seasons are good. But it is particularly hard for wheat farmers who had a good amount of rain earlier and have now los their first crop in years.

Hi Jai,
It makes it really tough for the people affected.

Hi Rebecca,
Dinner was great.
Thank you!

Hi Susan,
It has eased up for the minute.
The tragedy with the deaths is most of them are avoidable, just inexperienced people putting themselves in dangerous situations.

Hi Myrna,
Locally it has. Some places up north it is so flat that it can take weeks for the floods to recede completely.

Hi Hart,
The good thing about Oz is communities are really good at rallying around and helping the hardest affected out.

Hi Samantha,
Oddly with the cropping that most Aussie farms do it usually means better crops over the next years. If things like Vinyards and the like are damaged of course it is a whole different story.

Hi Ann,
Hi Hope they are Ok.
Hmm I love Cherries and it is cherry season down this way, yummm.

Hi VR,
Interestingly in those isolated places farm houses and the like are usually on stilts, or on patches of higher ground. The biggest problem is road closures, in some places for weeks at a time. Hence air drops for those people who hadn’t put up enough stores.