As most of you know South East Queensland has recently been devastated by the worst floods in over 30 years. Thousands of homes in Brisbane and its surrounding suburbs and towns went under - not a little bit, not just a damp carpet but houses and businesses covered up to and over their roofs, people trapped & drowned in their homes and cars picked up and swept away by the torrents.
I've never lived through a natural disaster before and I never want to again. Everyone was glued to televisions, radios or the internet getting the latest information and over three days the river just kept on rising, and when it seemed like it had reached higher than you could ever imagine it rose some more. And it wasn't just properties next to the river that went under. As the water rose on the river it also rose through the storm drains, so anywhere that was under the level of the river went under. Properties, entire suburbs a mile or more from the river were unexpectedly submerged.
The rivers dropped as quickly as they rose and sometimes now it's almost impossible to belive that it happened. Until you turn down the wrong street and see the empty gutted houses where everything not moved had to be thrown out, peoples entire lives piled up on the kerbside covered in a rotting brown sludge waiting to be chucked into a truck & dumped. 146,000 tonnes of rubbish was picked up in the two weeks after the flood, 146,000 tonnes of memories will be buried in landfill.
One good thing to come out of all of this was the community spirit, the Queensland spirit. On the first weekend it seemed like the entire population of Brisbane turned out to help. People flocked into the affected suburbs and walked through the streets asking every homeowner what they could do. Those that couldn't lift, dig or sweep made sure that everyone was well fed - I could have eaten my weight in sausage in bread every day.
However now it's happening again. Brisbane may be safe and starting a long road to recovery but elsewhere in the state a cyclone is bearing down on the Far North Queensland coast. A cyclone is the southern hemisphere version of a hurricane and this one, a category 5 cyclone due to hit land in a few hours, is forecast to be bigger than Katrina. Winds will reach almost 300km/h (almost 200 miles/hr), waves will be over 12m high, flood tides will be upto 6m higher than a normal high tide and rainfall could be up to 1000mm (over 3 ft) in 24 hrs. This could potentially decimate large parts of the coastline and destroy entire towns or even cities like Cairns. It's forecast to hit towns 400km inland with the power of a category 3 cyclone, where winds are expected to 'only' hit 100 miles/hr. And those towns are not built to cope with that.
All we can do is hope and pray that somehow the power drops as we watch the horror show being played out before us. This country is tough, this country can make you work to live here. It's no wonder that 'mateship' is an intrinsic part of being an Australian. We're a long way from help down here if it goes tits up, and if you don't all watch out for each other you've got no hope.
I've never lived through a natural disaster before and I never want to again. Everyone was glued to televisions, radios or the internet getting the latest information and over three days the river just kept on rising, and when it seemed like it had reached higher than you could ever imagine it rose some more. And it wasn't just properties next to the river that went under. As the water rose on the river it also rose through the storm drains, so anywhere that was under the level of the river went under. Properties, entire suburbs a mile or more from the river were unexpectedly submerged.
The rivers dropped as quickly as they rose and sometimes now it's almost impossible to belive that it happened. Until you turn down the wrong street and see the empty gutted houses where everything not moved had to be thrown out, peoples entire lives piled up on the kerbside covered in a rotting brown sludge waiting to be chucked into a truck & dumped. 146,000 tonnes of rubbish was picked up in the two weeks after the flood, 146,000 tonnes of memories will be buried in landfill.
One good thing to come out of all of this was the community spirit, the Queensland spirit. On the first weekend it seemed like the entire population of Brisbane turned out to help. People flocked into the affected suburbs and walked through the streets asking every homeowner what they could do. Those that couldn't lift, dig or sweep made sure that everyone was well fed - I could have eaten my weight in sausage in bread every day.
However now it's happening again. Brisbane may be safe and starting a long road to recovery but elsewhere in the state a cyclone is bearing down on the Far North Queensland coast. A cyclone is the southern hemisphere version of a hurricane and this one, a category 5 cyclone due to hit land in a few hours, is forecast to be bigger than Katrina. Winds will reach almost 300km/h (almost 200 miles/hr), waves will be over 12m high, flood tides will be upto 6m higher than a normal high tide and rainfall could be up to 1000mm (over 3 ft) in 24 hrs. This could potentially decimate large parts of the coastline and destroy entire towns or even cities like Cairns. It's forecast to hit towns 400km inland with the power of a category 3 cyclone, where winds are expected to 'only' hit 100 miles/hr. And those towns are not built to cope with that.
All we can do is hope and pray that somehow the power drops as we watch the horror show being played out before us. This country is tough, this country can make you work to live here. It's no wonder that 'mateship' is an intrinsic part of being an Australian. We're a long way from help down here if it goes tits up, and if you don't all watch out for each other you've got no hope.
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