Brisbane is a major minerals industry centre, so we have been greatly concerned over the past week about the welfare of our many friends and colleagues in this great city. It is hard to believe that only 4 months ago we were enjoying the Queensland sunshine during the
IMPC in Brisbane.
Rolf Fandich of the JKTech in the suburb of Indooroopilly informs us that the floods have caused power outages at the JK Centre, bringing their servers down and making email communication via this route impossible.
Some emails have been getting though, however.
Dee Bradshaw of the JKMRC, and one of MEI's
Flotation '11 consultants has managed to contact me twice and has sent in these amazing photos of her and husband Mike outside their flat on the Brisbane River.
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| The view from Dee's lounge, Thursday.... |
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| ..and the view today (Sunday) |
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| Mike and Dee Bradshaw outside their flat (Thursday) |
As ever Dee is smiling, and the emails we have received suggest a real 'spirit of the Blitz', where everyone is pulling together to commence the great clean up.
Alan Butcher of FEI emailed on Thursday to say that the FEI offices were evacuated and he was stranded in his home in the suburbs, about 25km S-W of the city, on what had become an island prison. Near neighbour
Tim Napier-Munn, former JKMRC Director has emailed today from his aptly named 'bigpond' server: "we have a very well organised and kind neighbour who has an emergency power generator and lent us a few watts twice a day to keep the fridge going and to send a few quick emails, so we were better off than most. Looking back, the flood was a minor inconvenience for us, but had the early predictions of a higher and longer flood been borne out then food would have become a serious issue. And of course many in the city suffered far worse."
Today (Sunday) over 50,000 people are out with the mud army, on what is being called Sunday Muddy Sunday!
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| Dee and Mike Bradshaw, and Tim Napier-Munn on clean-up duties |
Let's not forget, however, that Brisbane got off relatively lightly, in terms of human suffering, compared with other parts of Queensland and in the devastating floods in Brazil and Sri Lanka. Our thoughts are with you all.
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This media release has just been received from the JK Centre:
ReplyDeleteQueensland Flood Disaster – Impact on the JK Centre
As many will be aware, Queensland has, in the last three weeks, experienced major flooding across 75% of the state. Brisbane has also been severely affected with 11,900 homes and 2,500 businesses completely flooded and a further 14,700 homes and 2,500 businesses partially flooded. After last week’s river peak on Thursday 13 January 2011, Friday saw the beginning of a massive clean-up operation across Brisbane and Ipswich which will continue for some time. The impact of this disaster both from a personal and business perspective is enormous with many flow-on effects predicted.
In a joint statement, Dr Sarah Schwarz (acting CEO of JKTech) and Professor Geoff Gault (Director of the JKMRC), reported that all staff and students at the JK Centre are safe, although a number have sustained damage to property and personal effects. “We are thankful that all staff and students are safe and we will continue to support those who have been adversely affected by the flood.”
The JK Centre at Indooroopilly in Brisbane (housing both JKTech and JKMRC) was unaffected apart from some power outages that made email communication during the past week difficult. Incoming telephone calls have also been impacted. Power has now been fully restored and, apart from those personally affected; it is effectively business as usual for both JKTech and JKMRC.
The JKTech Geometallurgical Laboratory facility situated at Sumner Park in Brisbane’s western suburbs, suffered severe flood ingress. A recovery program is currently underway to ensure that the facility will be operational as soon as possible. In the meantime, laboratory testing activities will be relocated to the JK Pilot Plant. Customers who may be affected by this will be contacted regarding their individual projects.
We appreciate all the messages of support that we have received from our business partners and customers, and assure you that we are ready to continue offering the services for which JKTech and JKMRC are renowned.
I'm glad to hear that everyone is safe, and I hope you get cleaned up and back to normal quickly. Love the photos Dee!
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