Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Brisbane Flood Disaster - Personal Perspectives 3

One of the guys I know, Mark, who was directly affected by the Brisbane floods, took a series of professional photos of the flooding event from his perspective. Living in the Fairfield area, he had direct access to the river and the subsequent inundation around him. If you click here you can get to his flickr collection of the full suite of images.

Looking at Mark's recollections on Facebook, it all began with the movies. He outlined that he was thinking about going to the movies at Southbank, but then thought better of it. Someone suggested he should go see "Waterworld". How appropriate. Instead he went out and about and started to document visually what he saw. The river was angry that day, and around the University of Queensland, you began to get an idea of what the next few days were likely to bring if the river didn't recede.

As he wrote on Wednesday, "The water rose very quickly on day 2. After helping some friends move a few things to higher ground, I did a tour around the local area." Returning home, he had no power. Must have been hard for an IT guru but the good fortune of not having water in your home was probably worth the inconvenience. These shots from around the area now provide examples of some of what he saw.



As he commented about Dutton Park Cemetry, "Floods have no respect for the dead. Or the living. :)"



On Thursday, day 3 Mark was out around 4am at the time of the flood peak. He commented, "I went down to have a look - nobody else was about and it was incredibly eerie." This small selection reflects this. Note how by this time, the rain had stopped and at the peak it was a clear, warm morning.

Cross Street, Fairfield.



Flood peak at 4am, corner of Ashby Street and Cross Street, Fairfield.


After the peak, watching as the water slowly recedes.


Again, if you get a chance, have a look at Mark's full group collection of the floods on flickr to see both his and many other's images.

Please, if you can, I urge you to donate to the Queensland Flood Relief on the Queensland government website.

Cheers, I Love Brisbane, Wes.

Click Here for the Google Map Reference for this post (Fairfield).

All Images Courtesy Mark Cocquio.

7 comments:

mcm said...

2thanks for all of your information. i love brisbane, too. i was able to visit in late december in order to consider moving to brisbane from the usa. now it seems like a poor choice. can you give me any advice? anything would help. my best to queensland.

meghan

myWeddingHour said...

Amaizing to follow through with the floods like this, thanks Mark.

wayne-Gold coast cheap carpet cleaning said...

Its So sad to see this happen to brisbane i am so happy yous stuck together to get through this !

I love brisbane

Richard said...

Those shots really help convey what the situation was like. Thanks for sharing.

Office Furniture Brisbane said...

Just really glad its know all over.
(for most people)

All Aces Brisbane said...

Flood in Brisbane area is annoying! Thanks for sharing these photos. True, natural calamities like floods have no respect for the dead, as show in a flooded cemetery.

Anonymous said...

@meghan why would brisbane be a poor choice? Not all of brisbane went under water. I think that natural disasters can strike in any country, in any continent, at any time! It's common sense... Just sayin'.