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Forum Index : Off topic archive. : Floods
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Andy R. Newbie  Joined: 07/05/2010 Location: United StatesPosts: 18 |
On the news here in the USA it's showing massive flooding in Australia. Is everybody doing okay down there? |
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Gizmo Admin Group  Joined: 05/06/2004 Location: AustraliaPosts: 5116 |
Hi Andy OK where I am, but I'm on the coast so any flooding we have is gone in a few hours. We did have a big wet season 2 years ago, 23inches of rain in 6 hours here in Mackay, caused a few problems, but it was all gone after a couple of hours, big clean up though, over a thousand houses went under. They said it was a one in 50 year event. 2 years later, its the same sort of weather, and earlier in the season. Normally the wet season doesn't start till mid January, but its been wet since September. We had a small cyclone cross the coast 800km north of here on Christmas day, and it brought about 5 days of heavy rain with it. Out west where all the flooding is, its very flat land and its takes time for the waters to subside. They had to evacuate a few small towns, and it will be a week or two till its ok to go back. We wont really know the extent of the damage for a week or two. No real loss of life, other than a few unfortunate drownings, or idiots driving around closed road signs, onto flooded roads and getting washed away. The thing that worries me is this is only the start of the wet season, there could be a lot more to come. Glenn The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the second best time is right now. JAQ |
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Downwind Guru  Joined: 09/09/2009 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2333 |
Snorgle and mask needed to get to the PC, hell its hard typing under water, and the mouse keeps floating away. 
It is dry and nice weather in my location but some parts of Oz has copped a bucketing of a downpour. Sure there is a few members effected by flooding, and the impact on produce will filter through to most of us with time. Pete. Sometimes it just works |
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WindyMick Newbie Joined: 25/12/2010 Location: AustraliaPosts: 6 |
Hi Andy, Here in Childers we got 700mm in December, normally get 105mm. Like Glen says, it can run away on the coast.(although Rockhampton is under) What about all the poor buggers out central western QLD.I hear in Rockhampton the natives are starting to spark up with low food/fuel supplies and now they've just shut the Bruce hwy southbound. Yikes 
Mick Manly to win ! |
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energy man Newbie Joined: 29/11/2010 Location: AustraliaPosts: 9 |
Well I can say its very wet Here In Dalby Queensland , My place is high and dry but every body ends up staying with us . Bit of strain on things in the house but we coped allright . Its a good feeling helping people in need .  My wind gen has been put on hold for a while . Hey but as i was helping out on an old farm i found a wind gen thats not being used anymore . it use to run a piggery but is closed down . Good things come to those who wait .  . Anyway gotta keep cleaning up and flood smell is a bit hard to get use to.
Well get though cheers for now Duff . May the wind keep blown folks . |
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| Gizmo Admin Group Joined: 05/06/2004 Location: AustraliaPosts: 5116 |
One thing that depresses me about flooding is the needless waste of electronics, whitegoods, tools, etc. You see this stuff thrown out simply because it got wet, but fact is, most of it will be perfectly fine if you take a few steps. First up, this is speaking from experience as a sparky. In the past I have cleaned cockaroach poo off microwave oven circuit boards with a tooth brush under the kitchen tap, soapy water is very good at cleaning circuit boards. I have hosed coal dust out of computer monitors with the garden hose. The trick is to dry them quickly with compressed air, then leave them in the sun ( or an oven on low temp ) for a couple of hours to get them hot and dry. I dont mean burn hot, I mean uncomfortable to hold hot. So long as the power was turned off before they got wet, most circuit boards cen get wet without any damage. In the 2008 floods, 3 computers at my workplace had about 2 inches of water go through them, just enough to cover the motherboard, but not the HD. I removed the CPU, washed the mud off the circuit boards and CPU, dried them in the sun, refitted the CPU with new silicon heat compound, and all 3 are still working 2 years later. Power tools, fans, white goods, would in most cases be perfectly fine, so long as its dried out correctly and tested before plugging back into the power. Unsealed bearings might fail sooner than expected though, unless you can get to them to replace/oil. Fridges have a sealed compressor, so should be ok, but you still need to dry out the electrics. Some things are not going to be repairable though. TV's, while most parts would be OK, have speakers with paper cones that will soon crumble even if you did dry them out. VHS/CD/DVD players have fine mechanical parts and optics that cant be cleaned, though I did manage to fix a VHS player once after beer was poured into it, twice! Computer HD's have a air vent that will let moisture in if submerged. So my tips are: Kill the power before the event, including removing batteries. Clean it with clean water and dry with compressed air and heat for several hours as soon as possible after the event. Get it tested by a electrician before plugging it back into the power. Glenn The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the second best time is right now. JAQ |
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| Downwind Guru Joined: 09/09/2009 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2333 |
I could not agree more as i have picked up many appliance from council rubbish in pouring rain and allowed it to dry out and found it to operate perfect, Water is only a problem with elecronics when its wet and once allowed to dry has no effect. I to have removed many circuit boards and washed the crap off them under the garden tap and allowed them to dry before fitting it again and firing the appliance up. Dry water is not a problem, its only the wet stuff that causes damage. Pete. Sometimes it just works |
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Tinker Guru Joined: 07/11/2007 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1904 |
Dry water? The only form I can picture that in is superheated steam  or did you mean ice  ?
IME, the water will evaporate away with drying but the fine dust (dried mud) it leaves behind is the real problem. This stuff manages to hide in the most unimaginable places to cause mischief, sometimes a long time later, after one had repeatedly congratulated oneself for a successful save of that drowned item. Klaus |
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| Downwind Guru Joined: 09/09/2009 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2333 |
Dry water is the residue left behind when PURE water evaporates
Nothing Pete Sometimes it just works |
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| VK4AYQ Guru Joined: 02/12/2009 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2539 |
Hi Pete Dry water is great as you say if it is pure, but town water and flood water has more impurities to deal with, salt chlorine lime aluminium etc. You need pure water like distilled for sensitive items as even rain water has a small proportion of nitric acid as dissolved from the nitrogen in the atmosphere. We used to redo the electric motors that where flooded along the river, by pressure washing, them feeding a low voltage dc current into the windings to warm them up and dry out water absorbed into the coils. Works well with electric drills and power tools as well. The biggest ones I did where 22,000 volt 3 phase motors at 1500 HP in a pumping station, took a week but they where going again. All the best Bob Foolin Around |
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| VK4AYQ Guru Joined: 02/12/2009 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2539 |
Hi All To give all our international friends an Idea how big Australia is in Comparison to Europe. 
To put the flooding in context, the statement was made last night on the news that the area flooded is larger than France and Germany Combined. All the best Bob Foolin Around |
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| Andy R. Newbie Joined: 07/05/2010 Location: United StatesPosts: 18 |
I never thought about it being bigger that Europe but then again, it is an entire continent. (I'm glad we're friends). |
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| Downwind Guru Joined: 09/09/2009 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2333 |
Do that mean we call Adelaide little Italy now.
Pete. Sometimes it just works |
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| VK4AYQ Guru Joined: 02/12/2009 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2539 |
Hi Pete Looks like Italy is about to give you the boot. Just had a big storm here tree branch through the skylight in the bathroom took out water pump for grey water, hot water system controller the telephone and new second hand Puter, Bugger!!! 3 inches of rain in 15 minutes the place is running like a river, might trigger more local flooding again. The setalite has just come back on line so thats the only comms I have got, can't get out due to flooded road, will have to have a whiskey and apple juice and think about it. Mills took it OK so thats a bonus. last reading on the weather station was 15 ms then it got lightninged too. All the best Bob Foolin Around |
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AMACK Senior Member  Joined: 31/05/2009 Location: AustraliaPosts: 184 |
Bob, You had better be quick and put some yeast in that apple juice before the whisky runs out as it is no good the way it is. On a serious note hope the rain stops and the river down your road turns back to the road. P.S Good luck. You may have to watch out as the Shire may put your rates up as it is now a water frontage AMACK *Note to self 1. Make it thick 2.Make it heavy. 3.Make it stronger than it should be. 4. Don't rush the first job as the second job will cost more and take mor |
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| VK4AYQ Guru Joined: 02/12/2009 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2539 |
Hi Andrew I will have to bow to your experience on the yeast and apple juice, last time I tried that I wiped out the pantry with shards of glass and sticky apple juice residue. I will send them a bill for the water to make their waterfront, not to bad where I am 350 ft AMSL I just feel sorry for the people on the flood plains. All the best Bob Foolin Around |
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| Gizmo Admin Group Joined: 05/06/2004 Location: AustraliaPosts: 5116 |
I moved this post to Shop Talk. Just had a whopper of a storm go through here, lots of wind, even had hail, first time I've seen hail in decades. It was one of those storms where the temperature dropped about 20 degrees in 2 minutes, you can feel them coming. Funny thing is the weather man said today there would be no storms, just a few scattered showers
There have been about 10 storms pass in the last few days, getting sick of it, cause I shut down everything when I hear them coming and I have a lot of computer work to do. Its going to be a long summer ( or winter for our northern members ). Glenn The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the second best time is right now. JAQ |
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| VK4AYQ Guru Joined: 02/12/2009 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2539 |
Hi All The ground is so saturated now it is impossible to walk around without sinking, I am getting sick of extracting people that come to visit in their car from my front lawn as it looks dryer than the driveway but is jelly, more rain coming so will be interesting. Even politicians have problems in in the mud. 
Shows that too much of a good thing isnt all that good. Hi Glenn, the last storm cost me two computers and some other electrical stuff as well but the windmills survived even though the storm was bad enough to rip trees apart. Direct hit of lightning on the phone line cooked the wireless phone and the Fax machine so no comms but the Setalight, All the best Bob Foolin Around |
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| Downwind Guru Joined: 09/09/2009 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2333 |
Looks like the fire brigade is helping the police out again. Pete. Sometimes it just works |
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| Gizmo Admin Group Joined: 05/06/2004 Location: AustraliaPosts: 5116 |
Very clever Pete. Yeah Bob, when I worked in appliance repairs, we would rub our hands together when a big electric storm went over, it meant we were in for a busy week
I'm paranoid about switching off stuff now. When its obvious the storm is going to hit I shut down the computers and turn everything off at the wall, and unplug the phone/adsl line and tv aerial. The air conditioner is hard wired, so I flick off its circuit breaker in the power box. Better be safe than sorry. Glenn The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the second best time is right now. JAQ |
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