Impressions from the flood

It was an interesting experiment to ride through the debris left over from the flood this morning on my usual route once again. Actually, there was a mist hanging over the Gold Coast both in the morning and in the evening, which added a little bit of "mystery" to the pre-dawn ride this morning. It was also unusually humid for this time of year, but that is understandable! So far today I've had a few thoughts about the flood, and not all of them as negative as some of the impressions that others might have.

1. It has averted a major bushfire crisis. This seems to have been forgotten, but record low levels of rain the months February to April (when a lot normally falls), left the Gold Coast and especially the hinterland in serious danger of major bushfire problems around August if the dry season continued in it's usual way. Yesterday's deluge should have put paid to that.
2. The damage was much worse than it needed to be. Many of the places that went under had the same problem in 2001 (the last decent downpour). The only difference was then, there were no houses on them. It seems complacency has set into the design of some of the outer lying areas. The growth of the region seems to have initiated a "bang 'em up quick" mentality. Sadly, this aspect has received little coverage, so when the next downpour comes (probably during the next wet season or the one after), the same thing will happen again.
3. It was awesome to cycle through! Seriously. It's not often that my little 13km commute is looked upon as an epic ride, but give me a downpour like that and a few flooded areas to negotiate, and it's just that! The totally deserted roads made a nice change too.

In other news, I got another e-mail from Fernando. It looks like the NZ tour starts on November 5. Now if I can just contain myself for another 127 days -- that's a heck of a long time to be pouring over maps.