Ocker Nationals in Egypt and Gillard.

Saw on the news some clowns caught up in the shindig in Cairo unleashing on Gillard cause she hasn't choppered them out yet.

First up, shouldn't the gubbermint have a default plan that when the shit hits critical mass - or be aware it's heading that way - that there's transport available for people to bail. Second, 7 days into it and NOW they're at the airport bitching?

Natural Disaster Essentials

One thing I figured out - and what upset me most - was what to expect in the event of a disaster. A disaster, by nature, is an event that leads to a situation beyond what society is/can/will be prepared for and the event is a DISASTER. It's one thing to look at on the box, but it's something else to live through.

Where ever you are is civilisation. Never a truer word spoke. So sayeth Mr Barnes.

Isolation is humbling. Cash trumps charity. People who have what others need generally become cunts. Hope is the glue for any society. These are just a few things I learned.

What happened on the Monday was that a street wide deluge poured through Toowoomba taking out everything in its road. This was incredible, but by Tuesday lunch time this ENTIRE region was set back by about 130 years. No roads. No power. No water. No food. In my previous post there was a pic of me standing in the middle of the road. The water course - not creek, nor river, but water course - was a few centimetres deep and just a few feet - if that - wide. In a matter of moments it became a kilometre wide. A few feet to 1000 metres wide in a matter of minutes. This is why people died.

First thing's first. Information. You need access to what's happened. I was on my way to work on the Tuesday morning when I heard of road closures. I decided to turn around and I rang work. With the power being out we were fortunate enough to have a generator. This gave us TV and power for the fridge and freezer. One thing I realized is that we had limited fuel. I went to get some that morning. We could still get down the valley at this time. We filled a 20 litre jerry can with fuel. Queues at the servo weren't too bad but people were stock piling. By lunch that day fuel was rationed, and by mid arvo it was gone. As was cash from the ATM's, as so was food.

We have food in the pantry so that wasn't TOO much of an issue but the thing is you have NO IDEA how long you'll be away from shops etc. We were told to expect as much as two weeks.

Three things you MUST have access to at your place. Cash. A generator. And fuel. I'm going to track down a syphon set up for taking fuel from cars. Shops were STRICTLY CASH ONLY. There was NO charity from them until AFTER we knew it wasn't terminal. Shops WERE profiteering. Bread cost 10 bucks. Milk prices tripled. I found my smart phone with internet was a God send with you guys giving information. Phones went down with the power. Apparently the exchange has emergency backup for a day or so. Eventually the emergency services took control of the cell towers so we couldn't call AT ALL. Text was it.

IT's a scary thing. And much of it will sit with me uncomfortably for the rest of my life.

Oh, and run your generator for an hour every four to keep your freezer and fridges cool enough. Fridges are NOT designed to preserve cool air. Open rarely.

Flood photos.

These just give you an idea of what we were surrounded by. Click photos for bigger image.

This is the north end of town. This is the highway. By the mud on the ground you can tell the water was WAY higher than this. The main bridge is about 500 metres further on. IT's about 5 metres under water here. The bridge is usually 10 metres above this river. If you know this area at all. That turning sign is for Twin Bridges.

During flood.

After flood.

ME standing on the main highway to the town. Unfortunately civilisation is on the other side.

Well, THAT was an experience.

Last Tuesday we were sent back 130 years in four hours, technologically. Well, 130, with splashings of tech thrown in. Thank fuck for generators. We had something resembling an inland tsunami cruise on by picking up anything in its road and generally killing it. Fortunately we are on a hill, but not so fortunate were many many people around us.

There's plenty I could talk about but what I want to forget outweighs that. It took a huge emotional toll but we came out the other end still kicking. The missus got a bit sick from it all and we're still working our way through that.

I've got some vids and pics of the disaster, but nothing TOO spectacular. Just lots of water.

Hope everyone is okay and I'm glad to have the net back. Win.

Garmin Nuvi 1490T GPS.

Bought one of those for us for Xmas coz our MIO ones were just a pain in the arse. That particular Garmin allows you to update your maps for free for its life. Max, 4 four times a year. Sweet FKN deal. I got it for AU$360 from JBHifi, near Brisbane.

Has plenty of sweet features and is very intuitive. Easy to use and has traffic updates on route and lets you know what's going on on the highways and stuff. At major intersections it pops up an actual photo of that intersection from what lane you need to be in. It says the street names you need to turn into so you don't have to watch the screen. It can even break down the entire journey street by street, turn by turn, and tell you if there's anything you may need to know about road works and shit on the way.

I thought the five inch screen might be a bit big - it just looks it -but it isn't. Makes it simple to view. Highly recommend it so far.

Here's what it looks like on my screen. My car looks like it's giving me the evils.

Resolutions