It’s a bit wet up north.
Looks like my suburb in Townsville will be under water very soon, Ross river dam is at 230% and they are about to open the flood Gates, it’s expected to flood 20,000 homes!
A surreal country. Floods on one end, bush fires on the other.
One side of the Thompson Dam Catchment is completely burnt out. That will have a big impact on the drinking water for a while. Then the erosion after a fire could also be a problem for water quality in the Dam.
And droughts in the middle.
No, I don’t think they are allowed alcohol in the middle.
Not to mention the erickson skycrane that went for a dip in the dam the other week, not sure if they’ve recovered it yet
It’s a crazy country of extremes for Sure!
The view from castle hill would be amazing this morning 
I love the different contrasts this country can throw at us…life’s never really boring even if sometimes it gets a little too exciting. I’m currently cut off and batchin it as we decided the missus and girl spawn should go stay in town when our local dam spilled for the first time in seven years yesterday and brought the Barron up!! 
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That’s why they call it the WET season.
Sooooo… who was the IDIOT that decided not to crack the valve ,say 15% open when the damn got to 100% . But decided when it got to 230% capacity (and perhaps close to total failure) open the valve 100%. And flood shit loads (technical term) of homes.
IMHO there should be an inquiry into this complete lack of common sense. And perhaps negligence.
Perhaps a jail term.
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There should be an inquiry into draining swamp and flood pan and building houses in them.
When you get a years rain in a week there is not much you can Do.
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Should be an inquiry into both of the above.
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Was the emergency spillway opened? Surely there was massive risk of piping failure in allowing the water levels grow that high.
@gun-dmc
Building on a flood pan isnt so bad, as long as proper drainage measures are taken. You’re from Melbourne right? Good parts of the CBD were built on top of a creek, so Elizabeth street has massive storm water drains.
My understanding is it was fully closed. Next fully open.
My guess is there was indecision and then serious panic.
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Sounds exactly how babies are made.
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Dams have two jobs.
1 Save water for when it’s needed.
2 Manage floods.
Same thing happened just a few years ago because the hydro power company wanted max water =$
That’s an actual travesty. Conpletely flies against civil engineering ethics of practice to risk lives for money. Was more rain forcasted to come in that situation?
No idea TBO.
P. S. Remember once rain stops run off continues for a time. The country is run by idiots.
I live out in country Vic not Melbourne, but I do understand what your saying.
I lived in Townsville for many years and they have massive drainage channels everywhere. the floods this time were just unbelievable, not in recorded history has there been that much rain up there.
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The dam was open all along, they were trying to let water out slowly so they didn’t flood all the neighborhoods that have been built in shit areas since the dam was built, but the rain didn’t stop and to prevent a catastrophic failure they had to open it right up.
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