Brisbane, Queensland Flooding Impacts ISPs

As major flooding continues in Australia, the Brisbane River has burst its banks, endangering thousands of homes and businesses,according to The Australian. Queensland Premier Anna Bligh is warning of a "gruesome" day ahead as the search and rescue effort resumes.

Australian Internet service providers have cautioned there could be wholesale provider outages in the wake of flash flooding in Queensland, according to Australian IT site  IT News, which reported that at least one fiber link and DSL services in a few cities are down, including a major fiber link between Sydney and Brisbane which has been severed.

Status advisories indicated that the severed cable would not be repaired until flood waters subsided, which could be "several days." For more details, see ISPs Hit by Queensland Flood Crisis.

Several IT firms have stepped up in mobilizing a response to the crisis, including mirroring flood data and maps. IT firms have also responded to the call for donations from the Premier Bligh. Optus, Microsoft and Telestra have joined other businesses in making donations to assist in recovery. See The Australian's coverage of donations at Telstra Pledges $1m to Queensland Flood Fund.

Here's a look at colocation providers in Brisbane, supplied by Data Center Map, that shows the proximity of major data centers to the river.

Brisbane Data Centers

Map of Brisbane indicating location of multiple data centers offering colocation service providers. Map courtesy of Data Center Maps.