2011 Floods : The Enormity Of It All

My old school in rural Victoria, under water.

Goodness me, where to start? I've tried writing this post a few times, so lets get on with Version 103!

On 4th January I wrote about the floods affecting my brother's family in Rockhampton. 11th January found Kevin being evacuated from work in the Brisbane CBD and we were preparing for the worst floods Brisbane had seen since 1974 (in fact we thought it was going to be worse, that's still debatable). The third week of January had even more flood worries in store for my family, this time in north western Victoria, 1682km (1045 miles) south from my family in Rockhampton. What I can't comprehend is how far and wide this flooding has spread.

ROCKHAMPTON

I heard on the news late last week that Rockhampton residents are only now just getting back into their homes to start the horrible task of seeing what's left and cleaning up. The Fitroy River has taken much longer to recede than the Brisbane River.

When I last spoke to my brother he was in Mackay (281km/175miles away from Rockhampton) looking for work. The sad tale of this kind of destruction is that it extends not only to waterlogged homes and businesses but to lack of business and customer patronage forcing smaller businesses to let workers go.

The latest update for my brother is that he's found work and pretty excited about it. It means uprooting the family to move north, but hopefully the opportunities of this new position will be a great step forward.

A flooded Brisbane suburb and the sludge it leaves behind.

BRISBANE

We here are very lucky. Last week (second week of January) was a waiting game and I can't tell you just how horrible and stressful that is, even if you think you can handle it. We packed up 4 plastic bins with our life, the things we couldn't handle losing, plus the things we needed to survive (like clothes and nappies). We prepared to live without power for a few days (up to 6 in fact). Next we watched our local creek, and flood mapping and news updates both on TV and online. One thing I've learnt this past week is that Brisbane, as a large city has the capability to be so much better prepared (and recovered for that matter) than much smaller cities and towns. The up-to-date information at our fingertips was second to none and a huge advantage.

Wednesday night (12th) we hardly slept. Kevin was up at 2am to again check the local creek and catchment area to see how we were fairing. Later that morning, once realising we were fine the exhaustion hit us. It was quite full on, so you can only imagine how hard it is for the people that have lost everything. By now they have been going for two full weeks on an insane roller coaster of stress, worry, emotions and exhaustion.

My parents, thankfully were also ok, but even though we knew they wouldn't be flooded they have much more devastation around them than we do. They were cut off and without power for a few days. Part of their street is devastated and friends and local businesses have lost everything. It truly looks like a war zone around there. As soon as you enter the suburb you are hit by the fact that there is no colour around, everything is an eerily silent shade of brown. A lot of my friend's family homes (their parent's homes) are under.

The volunteers and recovery efforts here in Brisbane have been remarkable. On day one of the official clean up there were around 20 000 volunteers. And I'm sure that's not counting the wonderful people like Danielle and her troop of Baked Relief volunteers, who are rallying to feed everyone and anyone in need in Brisbane and beyond. It's just unbelievable.

On Friday I met a lady who had lost the bottom half of her house to flood, right after finishing a new kitchen renovation to boot. Call me naive or whatever but I was surprised to see her out and about. I'm sure I would be huddled up in some corner bawling my eyes out. She was a great example that you really have to go on, living your life as normally as you can, and she was doing an inspirational job.

A flooded paddock in rural Victoria, not long ago this area was suffering from years of drought!

THE WIMMERA

This past week was when it really hit me how far and wide this flood is spreading. The current flood alerts were for Horsham and surrounding areas of Victoria. My Aunt, her husband, two grown kids and their granddaughter were asked to evacuate as flood waters were expected to reach their home. Their plan was to head to my Nan's place, and I can testify that she's totally prepared for anything. Food, water, torch, charged mobile at the ready. I heard word later that day that my Aunt's home was safe. The water didn't quite make it that far, but if you look at a map, it did make it an unbelievable way from the usual river banks. Our old home and shop went under, but my cousin says, not by much, which is pretty incredible in itself seeing how close it is to the river. It seems the homes and businesses on the other side of the river (the town side) faired much worse.

I feel for the small towns most. The nature of their towns means they are isolated and without essential services for longer. I guess there is power in numbers and we surely have seen that here in Brisbane.

Before I go I just wanted to say that my thoughts are also with those people in Toowoomba and the Lockyer Valley that had no warning of this disaster. People there were truly blessed to escape with their lives. The devastation there is incomprehensible.

I was reading this post on Danielle's (aka Digella) blog earlier this week about her trip towards Esk. And that from someone who has been out and about in Brisbane seeing the worst of it all, she was overcome by the change in atmosphere in Fernvale. Apparently sheer devastation just doesn't come close to explaining it.

Please if you would like to help flood victims and can donate, all the Queensland info is right here, and Victorian Red Cross Floods Appeal is here. You might notice the insane amount of current donations but this is such a horrible event that it's going to need more money than I can probably pronounce, let alone ever hope to see.