Water water everywhere

I spent an hour or so on a local beach yesterday with one of my best friends who is visiting from Australia. The Sunshine Coast just north of Brisbane to be exact. She agreed it was a great time to be holidaying in New Zealand (sunshine and no rain) but slightly nervous about returning home. In fact she was not even sure she would be able to get home as large parts of the Bruce Highway north of Brisbane are impassable. Last night I watched both the local news and SKY News Australia (channel 90 running continuous coverage) with friends who have just returned from some of the areas which are now looking like being the worst affected.

Floods. We've had some big ones here in New Zealand but what is happening at the moment in Australia is on an enormous scale. Think of the area between the Brynderwyn Hills in the North to Taupo in the South and then consider that area being underwater. It's just slightly scary, isn't it?

If you want to know more about floods, the weather patterns that cause them and their ongoing effects, you can of course visit your local library (either in person or online). Here are a few starting points.

The new Library catalogue link A keyword search for Floods brings up not just books, but websites, DVD's, e-books and microfilm images from the Auckland Libraries collection. You can narrow the search down by clicking on different words in the tag cloud on the left hand side of the screen, or by refining the search using the headings on the right hand side (i.e. books only, adult, time period, etc).
The classic catalogue link A subject heading search allows you to look at the subjects in a more familiar screen. Click on any of the subject headings and the books or other material that we hold on that subject will appear so that you can see if they are right for you and if they are available.
The Digital Library Would you like to find out more through the web about floods and flooding in New Zealand and around the world? This is the link that can help you access a wide range of resources including newspaper and journal articles, photographs, etc. Scroll through the different resources (some require you to be a library member and enter your barcode to access while others are freely available). For historic images Matapihi is freely available.

In the meantime, our thoughts are with the people of Queensland as they prepare for the peak in Brisbane and continue their struggle with Mother Nature.