TYB
Deadly 'Rain Bomb' Leaves Parts Of Eastern Australia Underwater
02/28/2022 03:00am EST | Updated 8 hours ago
SYDNEY, Australia ― At least eight people have died after flash floods swept through parts of Australia’s east coast over the weekend and on Monday.
Torrential rain lashed the state of Queensland last week and over the weekend, leaving its southeastern regions and parts of the capital city, Brisbane, underwater. Images and videos revealed main roads and homes swallowed by floodwaters, large boats and jetties floating unmoored along the swollen Brisbane River and severe damage to property and vehicles.
One video recorded Sunday showed a houseboat colliding with a ferry terminal, then sinking. Onlookers pulled a 70-year-old man who was aboard the houseboat from the water. Although he was uninjured, the boat was destroyed.
The state’s premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, said Monday that up to 18,000 homes had been flooded across the region. Over 1,500 people were in evacuation centers and more than 1,000 schools were closed.
Many Brisbane residents also lost power, with energy providers warning it may be days before it was safe to restore it.
On Sunday, Palaszczuk called the weather event a “rain bomb,” and described unrelenting “waves of water just coming down.”
The disaster is the worst of its kind in a decade for Queensland, which faced destructive flooding in 2011 that left 35 people dead and billions in damage and economic losses.
On Monday, the northern New South Wales city of Lismore saw its worst flooding in history, leaving people stranded on their rooftops and prompting close to 1,000 rescue calls when fast-rising floodwaters engulfed homes.
“This is a natural disaster of unprecedented proportions,” Stephanie Cooke, the state’s minister for emergency services, said.
Australia has been hit with a series of extreme climate events over the past few years, including the 2019-2020 wildfires, drought and now historic floods.
“Unfortunately, periods of intense rainfall are becoming more powerful as climate change accelerates. We need urgent, deep emissions cuts this decade to limit warming any further. Every fraction of a degree counts,” the Australian Climate Council said Sunday.
The country’s conservative government has been resistant to strong action against climate change and refuses to commit to phasing out coal power.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/australia-floods-queensland-nsw_n_621c45c3e4b0ef74d732450a
St Petersburg Old Stock Exchange
Chosen to represent St. Petersburg on the 50-ruble bank note, this elegant neoclassical building faces the Neva River from the eastern tip of Vasilyevsky Island like an ancient Greek temple and, with the two Rostral Columns flanking it, forms one of the most celebrated vistas in the city.
The original St. Petersburg Stock Exchange, built in the 1730s, was wooden. Work began in 1783 on a new stone building by renowned architect Giacomo Quarenghi, but his oval design proved unpopular and in 1804, soon after the building was finished, it was demolished to make way for the present building, designed by Frenchman Thomas de Thomon, who is said to have modeled his designs on the Temple of Hera at Paestum.
The building was completed in 1810, although the official opening of the Exchange was not until 1816. De Thomon's facades feature 44 Doric columns on a high red granite stylobate, and above the main portico is a statue of "Neptune with two rivers - the Neva and the Volkhov". De Thomon went on to design the surroundings of the building, including the Rostral Columns (gas-fired navigational beacons), the square in front of the Stock Exchange, and the embankment. Thus the building became the focal point of the Strelka (or "spit") of Vasilevskiy Island - a vital location because it was right in front of the windows of the Winter Palace.
When the Bolsheviks seized power, the Stock Exchange Building became a sailor's club, then the Chamber of Commerce of the North-West Region, a labour exchange, the Soviet for the Study of Manufacturing Capability in the USSR and several other institutions before being transferred to the Central Naval Museum in 1940. At present, the building is in the process of being transferred back to its original purpose, and will soon be the new home of the St. Petersburg International Commodities Exchange.
Address: 4, Birzhevaya Ploshchad
Metro: Admiralteyskaya
Getting there: From Admiralteyskaya, walk west along Nevsky Prospekt, pass between the Admiralty and the Winter Palace, cross Palace Bridge, and you are already on the spit of Vasilevskiy Island (15 minutes). You can follow the same route on bus 24 and 191, and trolleybuses 10 or 11, from Malaya Morskaya Ulitsa to Universitetskaya Naberezhnaya.
What's nearby? Rostral Columns, Strelka (spit) of Vasilyevsky Island, Universitetskaya Naberezhnaya (University Embankment), Kunstkammer
http://www.saint-petersburg.com/buildings/old-stock-exchange/