Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Laidley Flood Aftermath

Foodworks had about two feet of water through it. It lifted up the large stuff and pushed it against the front windows and doors. All the heavy fridges and fruit stands have been piled up against the front door. The pressure was enough to pop out the two front perspex windows. A few shops had shattered windows.

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Photobucket The IGA supermarket is much higher than the Foodworks shop and it had water enough to damage goods on the lower two shelves of its fittings.

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The back of the Foodworks store. You can see the mark the water has made about three inches above the window sill of the Laundromat. (Between the tree on the left and the forklift on the right.)

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Standing on the pedestrian crossing at the top of Patrick Street, the main street, the highest place in the CBD. The water was up this high and entered several shops in the Mall.

Photobucket Some of the damage in the main street. The green box is the power supply. The large wooden box is from one of the supermarkets, a fruit display box.
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The newsagent. No papers yesterday or today... They have a lot of work to do to clean up, but are waiting for the insurance assessor to visit before they begin their clean up. Phew, stink!
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In the 1974 flood the Commonwealth Bank was inundated. They built it up so that it wouldn't happen again. The Commonwealth Bank left Laidley years ago and Wayne's World, a "junk shop" is in the premises these days. The water came up into the shop, you can see the water mark in the corner of the blue painted sign, to the right of the 's' in "Days". Looking at the cardboard above there it seems that the water was higher than the mark on the sign.
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Laidley Hotel, the middle pub, where I spent New Year's Eve celebrations... quietly. They are low and would have had about 2-3ft of water across the site.
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Front of the Laidley Hotel. It's even more rickety than it was before.
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The back of the Laidley Hotel, beer garden and smoking area.
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Inside the Laidley Hotel.
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Looking down William Street toward Patrick Street, the building on the right with the green roof is the Laidley Hotel.
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The bridge over the flood mitigation drain, diagonally opposite the town Cenotaph. Looking in the distance, the green roofed building behind the pole holding the St Mary's School sign is the Laidley Hotel.

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At the top of the town, at the end of the mall is the IGA store. This shop door shows a water level which is quite high for the highest part of the town!

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Looking down the main street toward the Foodwords store. The blue bin has washed through a laneway from the rear carpark. There were wheely bins all over the place which had washed out of the back of the shops.
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Just some pix of the bottom of town, where the water has gone over the fences. Some houses have had water through them.
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20 comments:

stackja1945 said...

Now how about Vania?

Carpe Jugulum said...

Is Floyd ok???????????...oh yeah, keep yourself safe Kae.

Seriously though, if in doubt get out. I've been monitoring the news in Qld from Melbourne if you need too just grab the dogs and run.

Stay safe dude.

cheers

The Jugulum Family

Anonymous said...

Ditto what the Jugulum Family sez. Posting links at PPII.

Andrew Murray said...

Hi, I'm in NSW. I don't know if you can help but I have a very close friend in Laidley Heights, Heron Street. I see you have been able to get around a little, would you know how she might have fared there? I got word yesterday that she is "ok" which is a relief but that was all, when I last spoke to her at length on tuesday she was stuck in the house because of very heavy runoff but not flooding as such. I dont know if her place might have washed out or if she was able to get out to gatton or somewhere else. She has a special needs toddler and she was by herself apart from neighbours on properties across the road. Even though I know she is at least "OK", of course I worry. Havn't been able to get through to her mobile yesterday or today (thurs) apart from the "OK" message. No worries if you are not able to help, there would be so many people that have had no news , I will just have to be patient and wait for news from her. thankyou.

kae said...

Hi Andrew

I am familiar with Heron Street and can assure you that it is quite high and dry.

The main problem at the moment is a lack of bread and milk and other staples, but that will pass soon.

I'm sure she will be fine. The power is still on out there and the water has long gone.

She would have been surrounded by floodwaters on Tuesday, but they subsided by Wednesday.

Andrew Murray said...

thank you so much Kae. Thats some good news and even better coming from a local. My friend is the most selfless, dedicated person I have ever known and really deserves any break that comes her way. thank you again.

Anonymous said...

Hey, some great photo's, as a business owner in town its good to see some photo's of the destruction, watching as my shop went under was pretty mind blowing, the help we received from the local community was great, the council did jack all, but the locals picked up the slack and gave us all a hand. Cheers

kae said...

Hi Anonymous
Can you tell me which business? I'll try to give you some custom.
A nickname would be nice, too.
Good luck with getting back on your feet!
K

Anonymous said...

Hey there, I know someone who lives at the end of william street a few houses up from the hospital. Do you have any idea how that end of the street faired? Thanks

kae said...

Hi Anonymous

William Street near the Hospital would be fine, they evacuated people to the Hospital.

That end of William Street is high, higher than the highest point in the town strip.

I heard yesterday that the water was almost six feet high through the pub on the corner of William Street. Looking at the back of the pub at the entry to the beer garden you can see the debris caught in the lattice work above the fence. That fence is six feet high or more.

Anonymous said...

Hi,
I'm wondering if you know how the lovely Das Neumann Haus faired? Thanks! /Sam

kae said...

Das Neumann Haus may have had water through the ground floor, just covering the boards, I'm not sure though.

I will see if I can check for you, later.

Anonymous said...

Thank you so much Kae! /Sam

Anonymous said...

The pub in these pictures is the Laidley Hotel.

kae said...

Thanks Anonymous.
I know it only as the "Blood and Guts". Unfortunately someone called it the Lockyer Pub.
Oops!

Anonymous said...

Hi Kae

You're a wealth of information keeping us informed about the floods.
Could you tell me if Laidley North was affected at all. I have a friend who is currently out of the country and who recently moved to that area and I was wondering if their home is ok.

thanks again

kae said...

Not sure about Laidley North, if it is on the flat they might have had water through their home - it's mostly been cleaned up now.

Anonymous said...

Thank you Kae for the update on Laidley North.

67heather8 said...

Kae hello, To you & all the helpers who spent every moment they could trying to help flooded people & shop keepers out, thankyou is not enough for the hard work & effort you all put in & also to those who took video's of Glenore grove area I thankyou too for I did not see the hight of the flood to my house till I saw the video, thankyou for showing me. I knew it was bad for I checked the height when I got back to the house & it was 600mm above the roof of my motorhome, yes 600mm above the roof that is a lot of water. & with out the help of those who came around & got us to where we are now I don't know what we would have done except that Laidley you are top stuff & together we all stand Laidley will be better than ever, thanks to all the helpers & a ongoing strength we all have to fight through all of this, thankyou Ms.H.Logan.

kae said...

67heather8
Hi!
I tried to gather the photos I could as I am a local and, although I have been here for a few floods in the 17 years I've lived in the Valley this was just amazing.
I couldn't do anything to help as I'm not in excellent health (and strength), but hope that my gathering of photos, both mine and others', and locating videos on youtube and linking to them will show people what the Valley was like in the flood.
Fortunately I live on a hill and although out of flood danger I was stranded for several hours. I'm lucky!
I hope all goes well for you in the future, Mrs Logan!
Best wishes,
Kae