Wet weather weekend

I just about managed to prise myself out of bed this morning to get Sibs ready

for violin ensemble that started at 7am.

 (What kind of a time is that to start school when you're nine....and on a Monday morning?)

Sibs is oblivious to mornings and can switch from asleep to wide awake in a nano second!

Let's just say I am not at my best in the mornings and when you couple that with the Australian Open men's final that went on until almost 1am, I was most definitely not at my best this morning.

Anyhow, once I'm up, I'm up, so might as well make the most of the day.

We had another wet weekend here and spent the day indoors on Saturday.

By Sunday mid-morning cabin fever had set in so we decided to brave the elements and venture out.

It was on with the rain coats and wellies and then this is what greeted us around the corner...

It looks like a bit of surface water collected on the road - however, this is at least waist high and fast flowing!

Again, this water is deceptive and when Neil waded through it was knee high and quite powerful.

Sibs and I decided that it was best to walk the long way around...

Everything is growing at a crazy pace with all the rain. Unfortunately that includes all the weeds!

This bamboo is slowly being surrounded by water but is holding its ground.



 We managed a short walk, but after a while decided to give it up and came home.

Even the local wildlife looked displeased with the rain.

So we got out of our wet clothes, chose a family movie ,battened down the hatches,

and made a good old Sunday roast.

 I'm off to Ikea this morning.

I couldn't find my list earlier and Neil swears that he didn't throw it away!

I might need a boat to get there at this rate!

Have a great week,

Brisbane floods - where were you one year ago?

This time last year we were holidaying in New Zealand.

Driving around the northern tip of the country in and out of patchy Internet reception frantically trying to get news of home...

We left Brisbane as the city was bracing itself for a major flood.

Earlier in the week we had witnessed horrific scenes on the TV of the devastation in other parts of the state as the water claimed homes, businesses and worst of all lives...

We knew that Brisbane was next - but we didn't know what this really meant.

Waiting at the airport that morning was eerie. The skies were a strange grey colour, the staff and travellers all looked apprehensive. My phone kept beeping with texts from near and far checking we were ok. My work sent a text to tell me not to come in...
I felt like we were running away from something and part of me felt relieved and another part felt guilty...

After a delayed flight we reached Auckland and checked into the hotel. The first thing we did was switch on the TV. Nothing major appeared to have happened, just lots of precautionary tales of people barricading buildings and evacuating homes. A quick call home to check and again all seemed okay.

Next morning was different. Now the TV news showed familiar landmarks under water. The river swollen beyond recognition,  - water and mud....so much mud...

Another phone call - our home was okay.
The nearby creek was high and flowing fast but thankfully just making it under the bridges.



photo by Brooke Gillot
local creek Jan 2011



same creek Jan 2012

It was with some trepidation that I switched off the TV, checked out of the hotel and went to pick up our camper van. All conversations - hotel staff, taxi driver, camper van rental staff was solely about the floods.

Whilst Neil was checking the details of the van,  I was using the free wi-fi to find out as much as I could. News channels, local blogs, anything I could log into.
I saw a photo of a golf course under water - a few minutes down the road from our home and had a little panic!
Another phone call....yes, all was still okay.
Brisbane city centre was slowly being engulfed, but our suburb was still okay.

It took a few days to try and steer our thoughts away from home. I don't think we quite managed to switch off completely. New Zealand tried its best. It gave us glorious countryside, spectacular coastlines, miles of nothing - it was beautiful.



Northern New Zealand



 

We did have a lovely holiday. We were lucky.

Even a couple of weeks later as we returned home the Brisbane recovery operation had seriously kicked in. We only saw the aftermath. We heard the stories of rescue and of the volunteers that worked tirelessly to help those in need. We saw the businesses that were closed, drove past some of the boarded up homes and counted our lucky stars.

TV and news coverage concentrated on the clean up and the positives. This was Brisbane and Queensland in recovery mode.

Last night I watched a recorded programme on the National Geographic channel - "Australia's Great Flood". (It's repeated on Fri Jan 20th at 8.30pm). I couldn't take my eyes off the screen. I bit the side of my tongue trying to stop the tears...then I gave up and cried anyway.

The horror came back. The uncontrolled fear that those poor people must have felt.

Now a year on and most of the city is back to its former state. This last week or so there have been services of recognition and remembrance. Yes, there are still families waiting to return home and there are still business counting the loss of income.
There is still grief...
For some people they will never be able to forget the floods of January 2011.

Now that the wet season is here again, we'll keep everything crossed that it was a once in a lifetime occurrence.

"Love you Queensland"

Milton/Rosalie Jan 2011

Even though most of the water has receded and the Summer sun is blazing there is still a lot of suffering and heartache in many towns and suburbs here in Queensland...and sadly also in other states in Australia.

Water, whether it be river, rain or creek has left behind a trace to remind us of its power.

There are communities that will take months to heal -

 they are only just beginning to count the cost of their losses.

It's still so difficult to comprehend the scale and cost of the disaster...

Many folk are starting to find some kid of normality, but for some...well, their normality is a long way off.

If you know a victim of the floods, keep them in your thoughts, or give them a call.

 Not just this week, or even this month...

The media has more or less packed up and left now, but the clean up and support still needs to go on.

Tales of amazing people and of 'Australian mateship' are constant and everyone is doing their bit to help. Apart from the physical clean up, there are many ways that people are digging deep into their pockets to help. School children are donating gold coins, people from near and far are sending money, donating goods and services and even making some wonderful things for the children who lost their homes. Fundraising activities are happening all over the city and beyond.



Last night, Brisbane Musical Theatre groups came together to raise some money for the flood disaster relief fund. It was an evening of talented local artists giving up their time to do their bit, and what a show they put on!

As well as the live acts we were shown a clip that Harvest Rain Theatre Company have just recorded.

I have mastered the art of linking a video (fingers crossed!) so that you can also share and enjoy - see below.

Click here if you want to know more about how it all came about. (Or if my clip doesn't work!)

The song/anthem  "Love you Queensland" was originally recorded some 30 years ago, and it was somehow vaguely familiar to me. I haven't stopped humming it since last night!

The clip also shows some footage of the swollen Brisbane river and  aftermath of the flood.

Photographs used in the Love you Queensland video clip are courtesy of Bruce Kirkland, Michelle Costello, Ashton Welch, Andrew Bartholomew, Arman Brkett-Saleh, Erik K Veland, Peter Turnbull, Brad Miller, Michelle Kenna, Ross Aitken-Smith, Renee Dillon, Kobie Hafner, Henry Gomez, Tareq Van Oosterom, Robert Cudahy and other anonymous photographers.



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