User blog comment:Callumthered/Queensland (Australia) Floods/@comment-4822327-20130128221951/@comment-4656717-20130128233746

Thnks for the concern!

My family and I are fine, our house high and dry. The worst effect the floods have had on us is that we're stranded in a small country town we were holidaying in!

Well, mid/late last week, an ordinary Category 1 (lowest) cyclone, named Oswald, formed off the North Queensland coast. About a day later, it was downgraded to "Ex-tropical cyclone oswald", and no one really thought any more about it. However, unlike most cyclones, it did not simply cross the coast and dissipate, but continued down the coast, bringing torrential rain. Which was welcome at frst, because this summer had been quite dry compared to the past three years.

Anyway, the ex-cyclone just followed the coast south all week, bringing immense amounts of rain to all towns from Bundaberg to Brisbane, and quite a lot of rain in Sydney. So, the effects can be felt down two thousand kilometres of Australia's east coast.

There was major flooding in January 2011, and many people only just finished rebuilding to be hit with another disaster.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/

^The Australian Broadcasting Network homepage.