Deluged

I was in Brisbane around Christmas visiting family.  It is hard to reconcile my memories of the Brisbane CBD and its marvellous cultural precinct with the today's tv images of a vast surging expanse of water covering a ghost city.  There have been truly shocking images of the inland tsunami that hit Toowoomba and extremely poignant stories from some of the survivors from the 12,000 houses that were inundated, the 15,000 that were partially inundated and the 5,000 businesses that were affected in Brisbane alone. There have also been impressive performances from the local, state and federal authorities, as well as outstanding volunteer and community involvement.  It's hard to avoid comparison with the Hurricane Katrina disaster.  At least this catastrophe hasn't been made worse by negligent authorities.  It will still be a long, hard year for Queensland, though.