Kiwis make for higher ground to escape floods

A group of teenagers being helped across the bridge at Dalby. Photo / Dalby Herald

About 140,000 New Zealanders live in Queensland. Yesterday, some told the Herald of their experiences during the disaster.

HOUSES TOSSED 'LIKE MATCHSTICKS'

An Auckland woman watched in horror as a wall of water swept through the tiny town of Murphys Creek, throwing debris around "like matchsticks".

Susan Whitehead said she had never seen anything like the "inland tsunami" that hit the town, about 25km north of Toowoomba.

"It was about 500m wide and travelling at at least 80 or 90 miles an hour. It was like watching the rapids just before a waterfall," she said.

"Skip bins and logs were being tossed around like matchsticks. It was quite scary. It's washed houses away, and cars. There's also cars that have been thrown into the side of houses and walls are smashed, and cars caught in the river - possibly with bodies still in them."

While Ms Whitehead and her family were stranded in their home with no power or working phone, her parents Maureen and George were frantic with worry.

But yesterday Ms Whitehead managed to get in to her office and give them a call.

"I knew they'd be panicking. They were the first phone call."

George Whitehead said the call was very emotional.

He had called his daughter's boss that morning to see if he had heard from her.

"He rang me back a couple of hours later and he said 'I've got somebody here who wants to talk to you' and it was Susan," Mr Whitehead said.

"My wife was in tears. It was a huge relief."

- Anna Leask

'IT WAS BIBLICAL'

Derek Gyde, formerly of Palmerston North, watched from the third floor of a parking lot as the flash floods ripped through the city of Toowoomba.

"This was biblical, believe me it was biblical. It just tore through and picked up cars ... It was so freaky. No one expected it, it just hit in about three or four minutes. Before you knew it, it was all under water."

He said the torrent was so powerful it picked up entire houses.

"It was a once in a lifetime thing. And you would definitely only want to see that once ... The thunder and lightning were scary enough.

"You could actually feel the house shaking."

Mr Gyde lives just out from the city and his house was safe from the deluge.

"We feel so lucky because whole families have disappeared ... From here to Brisbane it's just smashed everything."

He returned to the city yesterday to assess the damage and said it had returned to normal - as normal as can be expected.

"Shops have opened up again if they can, and it's back to working order. It's quite freaky because it's the total opposite of when the floods hit."

- Amelia Wade

WAITING FOR THE HIT

For expat Kiwi Alicia Lovich, the worst thing about the flooding is the fear of not knowing what will happen next.

The 22-year-old Aucklander lives in an apartment in the Brisbane CBD opposite the river and has been watching it rise for days.

The water burst the banks of the river and spilled across the road, it filled the basement carpark of her apartment building, and it's showing no sign of subsiding.

"It's a surreal feeling, we don't know what we're dealing with," she said.

"The fear of the unknown is the worst, not knowing if we're going to be safe."

Ms Lovich, who works as a freelance makeup artist, said it was bizarre seeing the river in such a state.

"The scariest thing is the speed the water is going ... so many pontoons and boats are just getting eaten, swallowed by the river."

The rain stopped in Brisbane yesterday and Ms Lovich said it was hard to believe.

"It's like a bittersweet irony of mother nature - one day there's flash floods and the next it's hot and sunny. It's crazy because it hasn't peaked yet and it's surreal having the sun out shining when there's a crisis across the road."

- Anna Leask

SIGHTSEERS WITH CAMERAS

North Shore woman Sharon Robinson was watching the waters rise around her Brisbane apartment building on the news.

"It's very unsettling for me because I don't know when I can go home.

"My apartment block has been on the Channel Seven News and you can see it's just surrounded by water and the roads are all cut off in every direction."

Ms Robinson works as a contractor in the city and was evacuated from both her CBD office and her second-floor apartment in Brisbane suburb Auchenflower on Tuesday afternoon.

"By the evening the river was already at the road's edge, which isn't very far away from my place. And that was at low tide so that shows you how fast the water is increasing and it's just going to get worse.

"Everyone's just bewildered. This happens in other countries, like with the Asian monsoon. Weather like this doesn't happen in Australia ...

"There are people out at the edge of the floodwaters. They're sightseers with cameras just having a look because it's a novelty.

"I've seen people out there with boogie boards, it's just not sinking in that this river's rising by at least three metres in the next few hours. But they just don't seem to care because it's a novelty for them."

Ms Robinson said she feels lucky that she has not lost her livelihood like other people and is now staying with her aunt in Daisy Hill, which is not expected to be affected.

- Amelia Wade

'HE JUMPED OUT AND SWAM'

New Zealander Jane Moreland, who only moved from Brisbane to Toowoomba on December 30, said she had dropped two of her children at a bus depot in Toowoomba for a trip to Brisbane when flash floods hit the city on Monday.

But within minutes of leaving, the bus driver was forced to take side streets to dodge rising water from what is usually only a small creek.

"It was just crazy ... the waters were just rising all around us," said Monique, 16.

She saw a car in front get swept off with a man inside. He managed to make it to safety.

"He pulled down his window and jumped out and swam."

Then the shaking started.

"The whole bus shook and people that were walking around the road started stumbling."

Then, a man appeared and flagged the bus down to say there had been a landslide and to get out of the area.

The bus driver backed into three cars to move the bus to higher ground.

Ms Moreland offered thanks to both men and can't think about what could have happened.

- Beck Vass