Saturday...2 May 2015

Himself spent nearly 8 hours stuck in traffic on the Bruce Hwy last night. A big storm hit the Sunshine Coast, Brisbane and the Gold Coast and dumped enough water that the Brisbane airport shut down, trains stopped and traffic crawled to a halt as water flooded into and around the area.
Himself had a ticket to the Australia and New Zealand Rugby Test at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane last night so he set off from Caloundra a little after 3 pm with plans to drive to Caboolture and get a train into the game which was due to start at 8 pm. As he drove along the rain got harder and harder until he was down to 60 km and eight km from Caboolture the traffic ground to a halt and there it stayed until after 10 pm! Apparently the highway was cut by floodwaters in at least three places and I am reading reports this morning that five people died after their cars were swept away by the flood waters and that others had to stand on the roof of their cars as the water rose around them.
Our grandson was on his way home from university on a train which stopped between stations because the tracks were flooded and he sat on that stationary train for more than four hours and then when it finally did move again it terminated at the next station which left him and a lot of other people stranded for the night in an unknown suburb of Brisbane. His family called in favours and had him picked up and looked after for the night by friends of friends and he is now home safe this morning.
Himself survived his stranding reasonably well once he found out the Rugby match had been postponed until Sunday, but he said it was no picnic. Traffic finally started moving again a little after 10 pm, He said that even after driving the 8 km into Caboolture, fuelling up, calling home (Telstra was down but those with Optus had coverage) then crossing the highway to the north bound lane, he did not see the end of the backed up south bound traffic for another 15 km. One wonders how far back it was before the highway re opened as the traffic had been moving for more than half an hour at that stage! He was very tired when he finally got back a little after midnight.
And he gets to do it all again on Sunday!!