This unfolding flooding disaster in Northern QLD

General conversation and chit chat - The place for non-shooting specific topics. Introduce yourself here.

This unfolding flooding disaster in Northern QLD

Post by Rod_outbak » 17 Feb 2019, 1:04 pm

[Talking about the flooding centered around Julia Creek/Cloncurry...]

This flooding is of epic scale, and everyone who's seen it first-hand, are stunned with how many animals it has killed.

Reports of roads littered with carcasses of cattle, roos, eagles, hawks, and EVERYTHING.

Our crutching contractor lives just South of the disaster zone, and they got through with only losing about 30% of their livestock. Owen said the rain tally reached 9 inches, and they were praying it stopped, but it continued on for another 7 inches. 16 inches (400mm) in total. And that's a drop in the bucket compared to places 200kms North of there.
Owen said that it was bad enough that livestock went from drought conditions, to dragging themselves through mud, to then having 2 and a half days of unrelenting cyclonic winds, with light rain mixed in. Best guesstimate was the conditions placed drought-stricken animals into ~4 degree conditions, with wind & rain sapping whatever energy they had remaining. Most of them simply froze to death.

My niece was working on a property on the bottom edge of the disaster zone. The property lost 98% of it's livestock, and so she's lost her job.
She was rather shell-shocked when she arrived back in Longreach; all a bit confronting.

A story in the district of a young family managing a property; I think it's one of the big company-owned places up around the epicenter..
The family had to be evacuated, but the husband stayed behind to shoot all the pets. He was picked up some hours later by another helicopter...
The fact was, they all knew that there was no chance of saving the animals, and they would have staved to death. The family elected to give them a quick and merciful end, rather than starving and/or freezing to death.
And so now he's being criticised at length on social media. Why didnt he build cages for them up on the roof??
[Yep; In day 4 of driving rain, I always like to clamber up on the roof with my welder and start using lots of electrical tools up there, because it's just so PHUKKING SMART!!]

Apparently; this story isnt unusual.
But this family's decision highlights what it takes to be a farmer.
It's not a case of simply owning a freaking busted-arse horse on 5 acres; 20 kms from a Coles supermarket.
It's the situation when you have to decide the best options for your livestock, and having the guts to follow it through.

Much of the charity flooding into the region, (again) isnt being delivered in the smartest way. Stories of army helicopters dropping single large bales to cattle; the hay would have cost well beyond 10 times the value of the animal. Even more sad, is many of the cattle were last mustered by helicopter, and so are trying to swim away from the hay-drop, and burning up energy they really dont have in reserve.
A lot of these cattle are effectively walking dead, but none of well-intended want to consider that.
[complicated to explain, but a herbivores gut shuts down when starved for more than a day or so, and takes a long time to re-start].
And so rather than dropping hay, we need people deciding whether it's better to put a bullet through their heads to stop their suffering, or whether they'll respond to feeding. Grab a heap of large animal vets, and send them out to assess and cull as necessary

There are dozens of helicopters based up there; working their guts out to assist. Fuel (Avgas AND Av-Tur) is more valuable than gold up there at present, because no-one in the government has thought of running fuel in by C17 or hercules.. I've heard of helos carrying a drum of avgas slung underneath, because they know they wont be able to get any fuel anywhere. And helo pilots sleeping with the families, as they waste too much time returning to base in towns like Cloncurry. People are slaving their guts out to help, but the coordination from government is so freaking useless...

One phukwit armchair critic yesterday suggested people should've had all of their livestock insured, as if that would help the result?
[Phukwit's obviously never fronted up the insane cost of insuring livestock himself...or noticed how squirrelly insurers get when its a flood of epic proportions]
Most of the people up there are simply trying to remove all the dead cattle from their gardens/sheds/houses/cattleyards/etc etc etc, and havent even gotten around to counting the financial cost.
Thats likely to be the pain and anguish for next week.

It makes me angry; yet ANOTHER example of how poorly disaster management is being co-ordinated across this country.

Rant done for now...
---------------------
Sharing the extreme love with cats in Outback QLD
Rod_outbak
Corporal
Corporal
 
Posts: 494
Queensland

Re: This unfolding flooding disaster in Northern QLD

Post by Die Judicii » 17 Feb 2019, 1:46 pm

So true in every sense Rod.

I was in Normanton during the 08 floods, but this one leaves that for dead. (no pun intended)
I do not fear death itself... Only its inopportune timing!
I've come to realize that,,,,, the two most loving, loyal, and trustworthy females in my entire life were both canines.
User avatar
Die Judicii
Colonel
Colonel
 
Posts: 3706
Queensland

Re: This unfolding flooding disaster in Northern QLD

Post by bladeracer » 17 Feb 2019, 2:06 pm

Rod_outbak wrote:One phukwit armchair critic yesterday suggested people should've had all of their livestock insured, as if that would help the result?
[Phukwit's obviously never fronted up the insane cost of insuring livestock himself...or noticed how squirrelly insurers get when its a flood of epic proportions]
Most of the people up there are simply trying to remove all the dead cattle from their gardens/sheds/houses/cattleyards/etc etc etc, and havent even gotten around to counting the financial cost.


I was working for a builder in the Kimberley. When the wet season hit us he lost $170K worth of materials, luckily it was all insured. Unluckily, they declined to pay out as he had taken an unacceptable risk by working up there during the wet season...notwithstanding it was a contract that didn't give us a six-week grace period due to the weather. He went bankrupt.
Practice Strict Gun Control - Precision Counts!
User avatar
bladeracer
Field Marshal
Field Marshal
 
Posts: 12655
Victoria

Re: This unfolding flooding disaster in Northern QLD

Post by Daddybang » 18 Feb 2019, 8:58 am

Correct in every way Rod. I can't believe some of the absolute bullsh@t that some armchair experts are coming out with in regards to this event. :thumbsdown:

Talking to a mate in karumba yesterday and all the gulf communities (normanton karumba doomadgee etc etc) are completely cut off and will be for weeks if not months to come. Hell of a lot more heartache to come unfortunately!! :cry:
This hard living ain't as easy as it used to be!!!
Daddybang
Second Lieutenant
Second Lieutenant
 
Posts: 2012
Queensland

Re: This unfolding flooding disaster in Northern QLD

Post by hzj80 » 18 Feb 2019, 9:49 am

I can only imagine what it's like for the folks on the ground, I've been watching the satellite imagery like: https://zoom.earth/#-18.706123,142.1728 ... 2019-02-12

That's a lot of water.
hzj80
Recruit
Recruit
 
Posts: 35
-

Re: This unfolding flooding disaster in Northern QLD

Post by Sergeant Hartman » 18 Feb 2019, 9:53 am

Wow.... I can't really say anything.

Re the Facebook arm chair experts, when they Get off their chairs and their high horses maybe than. But it's like that with many things, related not just to agriculture, even ppl living in inner city areas have no idea about rest of australia outside of 10km radius of the CBD.

The Army helo was likely a publicity stunt or done in a well meaning way at the best. But still useless.
Sergeant Hartman
Sergeant Major
Sergeant Major
 
Posts: 1722
Victoria

Re: This unfolding flooding disaster in Northern QLD

Post by Daddybang » 18 Feb 2019, 10:08 am

hzj80 wrote:I can only imagine what it's like for the folks on the ground, I've been watching the satellite imagery like: https://zoom.earth/#-18.706123,142.1728 ... 2019-02-12


That's a lot of water.
.

Yep hz it's bloody difficult to comprehend mate .I read somewhere a couple of days ago that an area twice the size of tassie was under water at the height of the event. :shock:
This hard living ain't as easy as it used to be!!!
Daddybang
Second Lieutenant
Second Lieutenant
 
Posts: 2012
Queensland

Re: This unfolding flooding disaster in Northern QLD

Post by Die Judicii » 18 Feb 2019, 10:29 am

Daddybang wrote:Correct in every way Rod. I can't believe some of the absolute bullsh@t that some armchair experts are coming out with in regards to this event. :thumbsdown:

Talking to a mate in karumba yesterday and all the gulf communities (normanton karumba doomadgee etc etc) are completely cut off and will be for weeks if not months to come. Hell of a lot more heartache to come unfortunately!! :cry:


Hey DB,,,,,,,,,, not many people have even heard of Doomadgee,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

The pic I just posted recently of the Cat grader, (four wheel drive section) was bogged alongside the airstrip in Doomadgee in 2008
I do not fear death itself... Only its inopportune timing!
I've come to realize that,,,,, the two most loving, loyal, and trustworthy females in my entire life were both canines.
User avatar
Die Judicii
Colonel
Colonel
 
Posts: 3706
Queensland

Re: This unfolding flooding disaster in Northern QLD

Post by Daddybang » 18 Feb 2019, 10:42 am

Yep DJ she's not exactly a tourist mecca out that way :lol: I used to pull in there on my way up to the roper. Was an interesting community before the AMP was brought in but I haven't been there since early 2000's. :drinks:
This hard living ain't as easy as it used to be!!!
Daddybang
Second Lieutenant
Second Lieutenant
 
Posts: 2012
Queensland


Back to top
 
Return to Off topic - General conversation