Strange Floods

Fernley, Nevada and Coraki, New South Wales.

The Fernley flood reminds me of what we saw in Corrales, NM one summer in the early 70's - blocked irrigation canal led to a rupture - but this Fernley stuff looks pretty darn big in camparison.

A canal ruptured early Saturday after heavy rainfall, pouring 3 feet of near-freezing water into about 800 homes and stranding about 3,500 people, authorities said.

A 30-foot-long section of the Truckee Canal broke shortly before 5 a.m. in the desert agricultural town east of Reno, officials said.

...Water was 3 to 4 feet deep in parts of the town, resident Mariana Hicks told CNN.

...Residents were being taken by 10 school buses to a local shelter, and bulldozers were being brought in to shore up the levee, said Chuck Allen of the Nevada Department of Public Safety.

...The break occurred in freezing weather. "Coupled that with cold water, folks have just woken up to a terrible event," Allen told CNN.

The Coraki flood is occurring just a few kilometers from where I passed on last year's trip to Australia. In addition, it's weird to hear about a flood on the Condamine River system, which had seemed so dusty just a short time ago:

More than 240mm of rain has fallen in some areas on the Gold Coast hinterland, which feeds the Albert and Logan river systems.

The Condamine River is expected to rise to 6.5m at Warwick late this afternoon, with a second peak expected later tonight.

..."At a techno music festival about 40km out of Tenterfield at a place called Boonoo Boonoo there are about 600 or 700 people there who can't get out,'' Mr Campbell said.

"The stream there is normally 10 metres wide and is (now) more than 100 metres wide and is well above the roads in and out.

"We expect those people will be isolated for at least several days.

"We can't take them out by helicopter because all their hundreds of cars are still there.

"There will be a lot of head scratching today about how to effect (their removal) but in the meantime we will just make sure we can supply them with food and any necessary medication.''

More rain and thunderstorms are forecast for parts of northern NSW this afternoon when massive floods not seen in 50 years are expected to isolate the small town of Coraki at the junction of the Tweed and Richmond rivers.

But, Bureau of Meteorology meteorologist Michael Logan said the worst had passed for residents in the region.

''(This afternoon's rains) won't be as widespread in their nature as what that rainfall was two nights ago that was unbelievably torrential,'' Mr Logan said.

"The flood that they had at Kyogle and also at Casino - it's the second largest that they've had in history and it's the largest flood in that area since about, I think 1954 was the year - so we are talking about a very major event.''

...Floodwaters are forecast to reach 6.9m at Coraki tonight, completely isolating the town, Mr Campbell said.

"Once the flood goes through Coraki, it will go through a whole string of little communities in that region but I don't think we're going to have any real problems in any of those small towns,'' he said.