I've been amazed to see the footage of the Queensland floods. It must be terrifying for the communities up there at the moment, the waters so huge, powerful and unrelenting, people dead, and heaps more missing. Make time to pray for them.
Any readers know anyone affected?
Huldra Forsvant (Theodor Kittelsen)
Huldra Forsvant (Theodor Kittelsen)
7 comments:
I live in Toowoomba but work in Brisbane.
The day of the storm working from home, I got a call from my brother-in-law saying their place had some water flow in, not a huge amount but enough to saturate carpets and start swelling walls. He asked if I could give him a lift home to help his wife start cleaning, he works in the middle of town a block away from the worst flooding and I live on the opposite side of town to him so could theoretically drive through. I naively said, "Sure mate, be there in 10 minutes" and he said he'd start walking. Unfortunately we live on the other side of the creek that got to about 3-4 metres above it's usual 30cm depth. About an hour, 15 flooded major streets, and 8km later I managed to get across a lower portion of the creek. I picked him up about a block from his house, but at least I got to help with the clean-up to feel somewhat useful :-)
We were trying to figure out how to get down to Brisbane for my work on Monday night. That was until an 80km stretch of the highway between was announced to be closed along with every other possible route. While the worst experiences of people I know well in Toowoomba and Brisbane is some minor innundation into lower levels of homes, it just seems so bizarre to see it all happening in my own town...
It all feels surreal, people swept to their deaths not 2 blocks from where I was at the time after I've been watching footage of towns flooded last month quaintly thinking "Gee, that's rough". The weird part is that Toowoomba is on a big hill, all of the water was just the run-off from a massive downpour.
It's all a reminder of the stupidity of thinking that it will never happen to me.
It's where I grew up, though my family and their properties are safe, it still hits hard. Today, watching Ipswich and Brisbane, where we've lived off and on, go under is hard too. We know people are stranded in their homes (but not inundated) and people who've evacuated. One nurse whose been asked to do a double shift today because staff cannot make it to work.
My in laws farm in Dalby has been flooded twice. The flood destroyed hundreds of thousands of dollars of uninsured crops, and the seed for next time, and has eroded the dam wall to the point where they're worried that the second round (which happened overnight and is still happening now) might knock a hole in the wall. Which would be a pretty significant blow.
So yeah. I guess you could say I know people who have been affected.
Friends in Stanthorpe have taken in their neighbours - on the other side of their street the water is in the front doors. And I suspect I'll have a few friends who'll get evacuated today.
My soon-to-be-sister-in-law works in the morgue, so she gets to deal with the most heartbreaking part of it all. My brother is spending this morning moving all of his work's equipment to the second floor. My workplace has shut down - being on the river edge perhaps wasn't the best place in hindsight to house a repository of Qld's history!
It is all quite heartbreaking - even worse now that the sun is shining - just too late!
Amy, I was wondering about that. Have they shifted any of the archives?
Wendy - the archives are housed on level 3,4 and 5 now (for this very reason I think) but there could be issues with the failure of climate controls etc given the power outages. There are also thousands and thousands of electronic records - while servers are high up I don't know what water will do to the electrical system as a whole. And we also have basement level areas that hold items under quarantine so it is quite possible they are at risk.
It's a bit of a wait and see thing I think - hopefully none of it will be damaged.
Paulie- Thanks for sharing your story and for dropping by. It seems like heaps of people had that similar feeling of, one minute it's something you're watching at a safe distance, the next, it's happening to you.
wendy- It must feel strange watching this happen to your familiar surroundings from such a distance.
Nath- Oh man. Hope your inlaws are ok. Thats pretty devastating for them.
Amy- Yes, heartbreaking. So much damage is going to be left as a result.
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