When 100 percent is half-full

Many people, including me have struggled with the percentages used by authorities to explain the amount of water held by Wivenhoe dam.
For example, during the Brisbane flood event it was said that the dam was 186% full. Now there's a head-scratching number. How can a dam be more than 100% full?
It appears that the full capacity of the dam is 225% - with 100% referring to the storage of the region's drinking water and anything above that is for flood storage.
Still don't understand? Check out an article published yesterday by the Australian Geographic. Simply click on this article's headline.
One thing the article doesn't touch on is the legislation that requires seqwater to drain the floodwaters stored - 'within the required 7 days'.
Now what's that all about?
The economic cost of the Queensland floods is expected to be the highest in Australia's history. The federal government has already paid out $52m in immediate support to victims. The Premier's flood appeal has raised $85 million, and Ms Bligh has promised all the money will go directly to victims.
The river level at Colleges Crossing is still at catastrophic heights, and it should be remembered that the level at Mt Crosby at the peak of the flood was 26m. Colleges Crossing has been hit by a series of floods over the last couple of months as a result of those dam releases of stored floodwaters to comply with the 'required 7 days' in the legislation.
As everyone is aware the cafe at Colleges Crossing was removed last Monday as the flood levels got to critical levels.

Well since then I've be able to dig up a copy of the Local Bulletin news magazine from 1996 which featured the May floods of that year during which the cafe was also moved to the top of the hill overlooking the park.
The estimated cost for the repairs nearly 15 years ago was $150,000. The figure this year will leave that in the shade.

These latest releases from Wivenhoe dam are continuing around 300,000 megalitres a day, and Colleges Crossing is expected to remain inundated until the middle of next week.
It won't be a pretty sight when the water finally subsides.
It may been long time before the cafe reopens.

Survivor - Karana Downs

With power restored last night (8pm) - life returned to normal after a week in which we had been cut off from the outside world. No electricity, no phone, no food, no petrol, and cars packed to the roof ready for evacuation. The Mt Crosby weir was drowned under 26 metres of flood waters - Colleges Crossing continued to the cut - and the only road east to Brisbane was also under water.
The authorities finally realised that there were people living in the exotic far-flung suburbs of Karana Downs, Mt Crosby and Bellbowrie, late Thursday afternoon - despite the fact that these areas were the first to be inundated by the huge flood. By the way - there's about 25,000 people living in this area. A lot to lose in disaster planning.

The Brisbane River level at Mt Crosby today is still running at near 17 metres.
The river at Colleges Crossing is still raging on a wide front. The Navy is running emergency boats across the water from Karana Downs to the Chuwar side.

The above picture is taken from the Karana Downs side of the road leading to the bridge across Colleges Crossing. Remember what it looked like - it has been underwater for the best part of three months.

The devastation of Colleges Crossing looks complete. There were reports that the iconic fig tree at the cafe had been uprooted. Observing the scene from the Karana Downs side yesterday there was nothing to see but a sea of water. What could be seen was the awnings that surrounded the cafe laying crumpled up against the road up the hill. The peak flood level reached halfway up the hill.
If the tree and awnings have been swept away, it is fair to assume that the entire deck that the cafe was on has been devastated.

The above photo is of what used to be the Colleges Crossing park.

Seqwater yesterday increased the releases from Wivenhoe dam to 301,000 megalitres - so the flooding through the area will continue for sometime. It will take a while the the waters to subside - so that the full extent of the damage to the park can be assessed.
But, it would be fair to say that the cafe will be closed for a long time.
Today, it starting raining, and the cycle starts over again - there are cyclones dawdling around off the coast.