Australia’s troubles weigh on Mills’ mind

[DUB]

Australia’s troubles weigh on Mills’ mind

Patty Mills can only grin so wide when he’s dropping double-digit scoring and dominating fourth quarters. It’s hard to be too ecstatic when your home country is being ravaged.

The floods in Queensland, Australia have now claimed at least 13 lives and forced the evacuation of thousands of homes, leaving the point guard sullen despite recent accomplishments.

“It’s hard, man. I have a lot of family in Brisbane. I know quite a few people who have been evacuated from their homes, people who didn’t even make it back to their homes to get whatever stuff they needed,” said Mills, who wore a Brisbane Broncos (rugby) jersey to Tuesday’s game in support of Australia.

http://www.nba.com/blazers/tbtv/video.html?videoID=698

Just to give you guys a bit of perspective, the flooded area is twice the size of Texas.

 

[SlyPokerDog]

Just the little we've been seeing in the news has been amazing.

Post some pictures if you have time.

 

[SheedSoNasty]

I hadn't heard about that until now. My thoughts and prayers are with them.

 

[BlayZa]

http://www.couriermail.com.au/

i give the aussies some grief generally, but this is some serious shit, estimated $5B recovery , whole towns etc washed away.

 

[THE HCP]

pics?

 

[BlayZa]

the jersey he wore, brisbane broncos, their home ground is filled with water up to the first row of seats. crazy



and

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/gallery-e6frer9f-1225983022068?page=1

 

[SlyPokerDog]

Here are Before and After pictures with a really cool image slider thingy...

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/...r-the-water-rose/story-e6freon6-1225987603983

 

[DUB]

Here is the flash flood at Toowoomba that has claimed 16 lives so far, with 55 still missing.

Toowoomba is on a plateau, so all this water isn't coming from a large catchment area; it's just from the rain you're seeing.

[video=youtube;kYUpkPTcqPY]

Teenager swept away after saving his brother from Toowoomba floods

A TEENAGER killed in the Toowoomba flood has been hailed a hero after he told a Good Samaritan to save his younger brother first, minutes before he and his mother were swept away.

Jordan Rice, brother Blake and mother Donna were forced to climb on the roof of their car after they were caught in the flood about 2pm on Monday.

The tragic rescue saw a good Samaritan truck driver save Blake, while Donna tried to grab Jordan, 13, after he became separated from the tree the pair was clinging to.

Ms Rice's devastated partner of about 30 years and father to her four children, John Tyson, said Jordan couldn't swim and was terrified of water.

"(The truck driver) went to grab Jordan first, who said, 'Save me brother'. I can only imagine the fear coursing through his body,'' Mr Tyson, 46, said.

"He won't go down with any fanfare or anything like that - I don't think anyone will even wear a black armband for him - but he's just the champion of all champions, a family hero.''

Mr Tyson should have spent last night celebrating his 46th birthday, but was instead at a morgue.

Mr Tyson said the family were originally going to have a birthday dinner for him last night.

"At the end of the day I guess it's just the worst birthday I've ever had in my life.''

 

[DUB]

Country towns across the flooded area.

It's worth noting that many of these houses are raised off the ground to cope with this occurrence, but there has been so much rain that they still flooded anyway.

 

[DUB]

To put this in perspective, this is caused by La Niña; these are her effects around the world.

Climate chaos across world as La Nina makes her mark

As Queenslanders battle the state's worst flooding disaster in decades, countries around the world are also grappling with climatic chaos that has killed hundreds and affected millions more.

In Brazil, more than 500 people were killed when freakish storms in the mountainous area just north of Rio de Janeiro dumped the equivalent of a month's rain in just a few hours.

Flooding was so fierce in Sri Lanka that a dead elephant calf was discovered hanging high in a tree when waters receded.

Thousands of animals, including elephants, water buffaloes and livestock are thought to have died in the floods.

Parts of Sri Lanka and the Philippines are also underwater, with scores killed in flash floods and mudslides and hundreds of thousands more displaced.

Dr David Jones, climate analyst with the Bureau of Meteorology, said Australia and Brazil's weather patterns were being affected.

This La Niña was the strongest in decades and one of the strongest of the past century, he said.

Ironically this will give much needed relief to the 15 year drought stricken Murray-Darling Basin (the food bowl of Australia).

 

[DUB]

I have heard rumours that a percentage of all sales of Patty's jersey will go to flood relief, and that Patty will be auctioning a signed pair of his worn game shoes, with all of the winning bid to go to charity.

 

[VanillaGorilla]

Wow, that is insane.

 

[Ed O]

I have a close friend ( ) in Canberra who has friends in Queensland who has been very concerned with the situation. Australia is a massive place inhabited by a relatively small number of people, and it's a place that has been ravaged by drought... but when the rains hit it is particularly devastating because of these two facts.

My thoughts go out to Aussies who have been inconvenienced (or worse) by the rains.

Ed O.

 

[BoBoBREWSKI]

http://www.iamatrailblazersfan.com/PressReleaseDisplay/tabid/297/ItemID/2206/Default.aspx

 

[DUB]

The poor bastards in Queensland are busy cleaning up after the floods, only to be hit by the massive category 5 Cyclone Yasi.

These images will give you some idea of just how big Yasi is.

How Cyclone Yasi compares around the world

IF you're struggling to grasp the magnitude of Tropical Cyclone Yasi, consider this: it is so large it would almost cover the United States, most of Asia and large parts of Europe.

Most of the coverage about the scale of Yasi has tried to compare it with storms of the past - it's bigger than Larry, more powerful than Tracy.

But just as powerful is this comparison, showing this storm is continental in size. The main bloc of the cyclone is 500km wide, while its associated activity, shown above in a colour-coding to match intensity, stretches over 2000km.

The storm's scale of destruction is as shocking as it is inevitable. In the map above, the United States from Pennsylvania in the east to Nevada in the west, from Georgia in the south to Canada in the north and well into Mexico would be battered with 300km/h winds and up to one metre of rain.

 

[HailBlazers]

WoW. Some perspective right there.

Yasi is apparently the largest tropical storm to hit the continent since Europeans settled there, even out-sizing Larry, a cyclone that destroyed 10,000 homes 5 years ago.
"It is just a scene of mass devastation," one witness told the Guardian. "Larry was a boy compared to this."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/02/australia-cyclone-yasi-video_n_817693.html