10 Years ago
BigDog in 2011
10th January 2011 and the deadly wall of water that hit Toowoomba's CBD and the Lockyer Valley struck without warning. Weeks of persistent rain had saturated the ground and filled creeks and stormwater drains. The ferocious torrent, described by emergency services as an "inland tsunami", swept away cars and ripped businesses apart. This was a day that I certainly will never forget. I was in the BigDog office in Water Street (appropriately named when you consider the events of the day), that I shared with Parent to Parent. I was spending time with my client, a young man who was blind and in a wheelchair and we were listening to an RL Stine spooky tale on my laptop when the power went out. As the laptop had a battery, the tale kept playing. Hearing the sound of something bumping against the window, I raised the blind to see my car float by in a torrent of water. The building was Besser brick and the main entrance faced away from the flow of water so with the blinds closed and the roar of the rain on the tin roof, the impending danger was not obvious until this time.
There goes my car floating past the office
Cars piled under the railway bridge behind me
Soon after this a huge wave of water engulfed the entire building and we were completely submerged by water for several minutes. The steel bars on the windows were the only thing that saved us from being washed away. When the waters began to subside a little I was able to attract the attention of a 4 wheel drive with a winch and rope, and carrying my client with a rope around my waist we were able to reach safety. We were lucky.
Damage outside Grand Central 3
