I don't know how much the rest of the world know about my little home-town of Brisbane, but we've been experiencing our worst flooding since '74 (and perhaps earlier). As of 4am this morning (13/1/11) the Brisbane River peaked at 4.5 meters. It has been raining here for, literally, months. There are 12,000 homes underwater and 4000 streets closed (City wide), 15 recorded fatalities and 61 missing (state wide). There are a couple hundred thousand houses without power. My power restored a few hours ago, but the whole city is off.

This is a view from the Story Bridge that's only a few years old. If you ever visit Brisbane, take a walk across it during sunset - the views are spectacular and you can walk right into The Valley - one of the night club and restaurant districts of Brisbane.

This is the same view taken a few 12 hours before the peak-flood.

(Credit: Retell, 2011)

Here's the same angle, than includes the bridge itself:

This is a view of the William Jolly Bridge. You shouldn't do this, but you can climb right on top of the Arcs and look back on to the City and Southbank. I also don't recomend doing this drunk, late at night...

That boat is a CityCat - they run all the way up and down the Brisbane river and offer some amazing views of the city and surrounds, and a full 2-hour tour will cost an adult less than $10 dollars. Horrah for public transport.

Here's the same view 12 hours before the peak.

(Credit: Retell, 2011)

Here, some rich people suffer a net loss:

(Credit: Amie-Fong, 2011)

And this is a pretty standard shot of suburban petrol station. This is actually pretty close to where I live (I think).

(Credit: Bramwell, 2011)

Ultimately I'm pretty lucky. I live half way down a hill, and am pretty safe from any flood waters. My brother and sister sit high-and-dry as well, but my parents back on to a creek. Fortunately their creek belongs to a different water-way and, while incredibly swollen, didn't threaten their property.

My girlfriend and I are moving out in the next few weeks and a property we applied for the very morning of the floods is almost certainly waist-deep under water. Luckily we hadn't signed anything.

Our State Premier and Prime Minister have handled this situation expertly, and without a doubt, have saved lives, property, and prevented any serious panic. The Queensland Police have been amazing on twitter on keeping people informed (QPSmedia). If you're interested check out #qldfloods and #thebigwet on twitter.

This was a pretty strange situation when all's said and done. We were first notifed that bad things were about to happen at uni when everyone received an email telling them to go home and not come back for at least two days. I'm told the uni is mostly underwater at the moment, but I haven't seen any images.

The following is a video from a town called Toowoomba - it's a few hours inland from Brisbane. This is shocking, because Toowoomba is a mountain town...

Ultimately we're very lucky, being a first world developed country with amazing infrastructure. We had massive dams built after the last flood ('74) to prevent more damage, and again, this has probably saved countless lives and properties.

I'm not one to ask for donations, because we'll be alright in the end. But if you do feel the urge, the most appropriate way to do so is here.

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Note: Excuse the lack of coherence and lack of fluency in this post - no-one's getting much sleep at the moment.