Stuck! In flooding of South East Queensland.

   It was my intention to come home for Christmas, volunteer at the Woodford Folk Festival, and then get going on some more travelling. But things don't always turn out as intended, especially when one doesn't have any kind of plan in place.
   The town I grew up in, Dalby, was one of those hit by major flooding during my time at the folk festival, so last week I went out there to help to clean things up. That was a waste of time, because another flood has come through again and everything I washed is now grotty again!
   I didn't actually finish the cleaning last week anyway, because early on Thursday, as I was working, I received a call from my brother telling me I had better leave Dalby ASAP, or get stuck there. He was right, I made it through to Toowoomba before the road was closed.
   This is the State we call the 'Sunshine State', and our logo is 'Beautiful one day, Perfect the next', but I haven't seen a full day of sunshine since my return. After years and years of drought, I have returned to find my state a soggy mess!
   Yesterday trumped all prior rain events for the area. I am now in Toowoomba, and Toowoomba is situated at the top of the mountain range (the Great Dividing Mountains), so you'd think it would be pretty safe from flooding... wrong! Yesterday we had hours of torrential rain, and it was too much, and so an 8 metre wall of rain came rushing down the creek through the centre of town. It tossed cars about like they were aluminium cans, and knocked down buildings. More water then went to the bottom of the range and took out a tiny community. As I write this they are saying 7 people are confirmed dead, and 72 are missing, but that both these numbers look likely to rise.
   I haven't been out for a look so all my information is coming from the tv, radio, and internet. I urge you to have a look at this video (my link mightn't work, so copy and paste) http://www.abc.net.au/news/video/2011/01/10/3109884.htm
look carefully when the van hits the second tree (it completely knocks over the first one), there is a man clinging to the second tree. I heard he is OK. Current advisories are that people should stay home and keep out of the way. It still hasn't stopped raining!
   Being in this has been weird, I mostly have what could be described as an ominous feeling of dread. As soon as it's allowable, I want to go and help with some clean up. But right now, I can't get to Dalby to help there, Toowoomba has said stay away from the centre, and the road to Brisbane has been cut too. So I've been in the garden harvesting things to eat...  can't get to the supermarket either!