Walking outside in Brisbane, no matter what you do your feet get wet. Your shoes will somehow fill with water and your socks will become sponges. Its one of the most noticeable things since the seemingly endless rain began. For some reason it seems to be the most trivial, most inane things you notice when things go bad.

The normal rules do not apply, the water is unforgiving, it ends up where you least expect. You see rain fall almost horizontal, you see the rivers flow with an intensity that you havent seen before.

This afternoon, what could only be described as a spontaneous panic hit Brisbane. People left work and went home. The trains out of the city were crowded and the roads out looked like gridlock. One of the downsides of instant messaging is how fast it can contribute to a panic. I got word of panic shopping in Toowong which is two suburbs over. I rarely keep any food in the house and only buy meal to meal, so I quickly went to the local shops to get something before everything was gone.

The scene inside the supermarket was like nothing a city dweller had ever seen before. The only comparable reference I had is that it felt similar to a bank run from a previous age. We werent exactly going to go hungry, but we knew the fear and panic would lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy where all the food would be gone so we bought what we could. I managed to get in the doors before the staff closed off the entrance because the shop had gotten too crowded. Some poor woolies employee was given the shit job of telling the angry mob outside that they would have to wait an hour or so before they got in. And in that time, a lot of the food would be good.

There didnt seem to be much logic to the panic buying. Perhaps because people found it hard to conceive that in an emergency they cant count on the things they take for granted being there. Meat was one of the first things gone, as was fresh milk. Things like canned soup, pasta, packaged foods were not taken as quickly. If rolling blackouts hit tomorrow as they are expecting the people who bought a hundred bucks of meat to put in the freezer will feel very silly indeed. Never trust the wisdom of crowds.

no more bread

Walking around the local shopping centre it looked like to use a cliched phrase “something out of a movie”. Most of the shops were shut with makeshift notes of signs saying that staff had gone home because of the floods and people just didnt know when things would get back to normal.

Not having anything pratical to do today, I listened to the radio and followed twitter and was in disbelief as waters rose in Ipswich and closer by in the West End. As was the case with Toowoomba yesterday you have little warning before it all goes bad.

When the rain stopped I walked along the river, which is only a click from my house. I had never seen the river that or high, or the water pounding through with such ferocity. Over the Walter Taylor bridge a train had broken down. On the river the private jetties had been completley covered up by the rising river. In the river there was continuous debris flowing downstream, wood, rubbish, I even saw a tire.

no more milk

People told they arent allowed in the shop

Normal life has been cancelled

train stuck on the tracks

The river is high

Throughout Brisbane there is a sense that this is the calm before the storm, and we are just getting ready until this thing really hits us. They are saying it could be worse than 1974. I guess we will find out soon enough.

I live in a suburb that is on flood warning for tomorrow and Thursday. Thankfully I live on the second floor and on top of a small hill, so I should be fine but others in my neighbourhood could be in real trouble.

So thats where us Brisbanites are now. Normal life has been suspended and we are just sort of waiting for it. Listening, chatting, listening to the radio, talking on twitter and…. just waiting.

Tags: Brisbane, floods, oh fuck