Downtown Chicago Flooded!

If the 3rd largest city in the US were flooded, it would be a horrible humanitarian and economic disaster.  At 2.8 million people, Chicago is the bustling center of commerce, politics, and transportation in the Midwest.  As I hear on the radio repeated (NPR and BBC) today about downtown Brisbane Australia being flooded, with water levels up the street lights, I grapple to put this in perspective in my head.  This is not the rural outback, this is a large metropolitan area.

Brisbane has 2 million people, and is Australia's 3rd largest city, as well as capital of Queensland.  I've got relatives on my father's side there, though exactly where geographically, I do not know, just "Brisbane".  The scope of how huge this flooding disaster is, I do not think it being comprehended.  This is akin to Pakistan's Indus river flooding last year, except the country is much more developed.  Hopefully that developed infrastructure (helicopters, military, medical, transportation, organized government response, fellow citizens uniting in support, lack of terrorists [in comparison to Pakistan]) will be able to ramp up and handle the disaster, minimizing the loss of life and reducing the misery of the people.