26 foot high wall of water in Australia Flash Flood

 Floods enter Brisbane, 20,000 homes in danger 

To read article on Australia "Biblical" Flooding click "Floods enter Brisbane" above. Quote below.


The crisis escalated when a violent storm sent a 26-foot (eight meter), fast-moving torrent — described as an "inland instant tusnami" — crashing through the city of Toowoomba and smaller towns to the west of Brisbane on Monday. Twelve people were killed in that flash flood, and 67 remain missing. end quote.

I saw some of the footage on NBC News Tonight with Brian Williams. The only thing it reminds me of is the floods of Pakistan and when the levee broke in New Orleans. However, New Orleans is NOT the size of Texas.

I have personally faced a wall of water from a flash flood coming across the desert (not a riverbed) about 4 feet high. Luckily, I could just screech my car tires and take off away from it at about 70 mph.  This was so completely unexpected I almost couldn't react. But in an emergency somehow you just do what you have to to survive whatever it is or you don't survive. However, if you have ever seen how a flash flood comes what this would look like is a wall of water as high as a 2 1/2 story building(around 10 to 11 feet per story) coming at you like a river. There is no escape from something like this unless you are on high ground or high enough in a tree or on a roof higher than 26 feet(likely 36 feet would keep you from getting swept away in the current).

On another occasion in the Southern California desert there was a man who was splashing through the water on a road during a flash flood. He passed us doing 80 mph(miles per hour). We later came upon him with the front end hood and fenders of the car bent up covering his windshield. He had hit too deep a part of the flash flood crossing the road at just too high a speed. Luckily, he survived even though his car didn't. Flash floods are pretty scary if you don't get out of the way. In the deserts of the Southern U.S., especially California, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Texas and Nevada people often die in dry riverbeds because they don't know that rain coming down 20 to 30 miles away could kill them in the desert the way flash flooding works. So don't hike in a dry riverbed if there is any rain coming down much within many miles of where you are in deserts. Pick higher ground if you can see rain anywhere from your dry riverbed location.

So, in Australia under these types of conditions if the people there haven't experienced this kind of thing before many won't know how to save themselves. This is the most serious problem with this that I presently see. When people are dealing with "Biblical" events only good luck, high ground, a roof, a tree or completely leaving the area might save them.