A YEAR AGO

All photos today from the Internet.

This time last year here in Brisbane, Queensland we were facing this.







In nearby Grantham and Toowoomba they were also in trouble.

 

When the water receded Brisbane's citizens rallied and the Mud Army appeared to help with the clean-up.

Buses were loaded with helpers and taken to where the devastation was worst.

 

 

 

On the surface things look as if they are back to almost normal in most places but there are still many families whose homes have not been repaired/ rebuilt mainly through lack of finances and squabbles with Insurance Companies and many small businesses have permanently closed their doors.

This memorial, called the Pillar of Courage, was unveiled this week in Ipswich.

.................

Edited to add this quote:

The 10 m high monument, named the Pillar of Courage, will be unveiled at a morning ceremony at Goodna's Alf Harris Park.

Ipswich Mayor Paul Pisasale says the pillar features six coloured blocks to represent the half-dozen times the city has flooded in the past 100 years.
Each block is etched with a word that recognises the positives that emerged from the disaster, Cr Pisasale said.
"Twelve months on the key words are: resilience, community, strength, heroes, caring and unity," he said.
"This is about not only reflecting on the floods but paying tribute to the resilience of our community and all the people that got us to where we are."

Photos like these make you pause and count your blessings don't they?

Cheers.

THE MUD ARMY

The flood clean up continues here today.

Many homes have now been cleared and hosed down.

Lots of interrior walls have been removed as plasterboard doesn't survive water

and mud has been hosed out from every nook and cranny.

Kitchen cupboards, lounge suites etc have been discarded but some solid timber furniture has survived.

The crowds of helpers have been transported by bus to areas where help is needed and lots have driven themselves too.

During the day people have been turning up to distribute food -

sandwiches,

 curries,

hamburgers,

sausages in bread rolls

muffins

cakes

all arrive along with cold drinks and tea and coffee vans.

All this food is donated by people just wanting to do something to help.

I'm so proud of my fellow Australians.

The links below are short videos about the "Mud Army" as they are now being called....

http://www.abc.net.au/news/video/2011/01/15/3113695.htm?site=brisbane&source=rss

http://english.ntdtv.com/ntdtv_en/ns_arts/2011-01-18/454659610209.html

and this effort at "poetry" appeared on a neighbourhood website today.

Our Mud Army

In answer to the Lord Mayor’s call

They came from far and wide

On buses, in cars and walking

To push back the muddy tide 

They came in to clean our suburbs

 With buckets, gloves and mop

And went out somewhat blackened

From their toes to their top .

“Tell me where to start” said some

Who had never met ‘til now

“I’m here for whatever you need -

Please just show me how”

It was tradies, suits and teenagers

Retirees and kids alike

Brisbane’s proud mud army

A true inspiring sight

And then the Aussie army came

With trucks and diggers and men

These boys have only just come back

From the wilds of Afghanistan

But they weren’t the only ones

The boys in blue came too

As did the firies and the SES

All heroes through and through

And when the sun set on Sunday night

It was a sight to behold

This proud mud army stood as one

Around a beer with stories told

In true Queenslander Spirit

This city will rise again

On the backs of our mud army

We will remember them.



Cheers.

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY - The Clean-up Continues

( All photos from local newspapers )

THE CLEAN - UP

Usually our little community is quite self -sufficient.
We have a primary school,
4 churches,
an olympic swimming pool,
a sports oval,
a shopping centre with supermarket, hair dresser, newsagent, butcher, fruit & veg shop, chemist, florist
doctors and vets,
a petrol station,
Thai restaurant and pizza take-away.

Of these facilities the churches and school are the only ones not affected by the floods.
75 homes in the low lying areas near the river were flooded to varying degrees. This is probably not a large percentage of the homes in the area so, although we have been isolated and without power for 4 days, a large number of us are fine.
Our freezers and fridges have defrosted in the heat ( 28 -30 C now that the rain has stopped ) so what food we had stored has gone. There has been much sharing and neighbourly barbeque-ing but families with small children ( and there are lots of them, our school has 600+ pupils and climbing rapidly) were beginning to do it tough.

 Finally, yesterday, authorities realised that we were isolated out here and running out of some types of food and now bread, milk, nappies and other essentials are being handed out at the Flood Evacuation Centre to those who need it. There is no fresh fruit and vegetables and there won't be for quite a while as the markets that control distribution of fruit and vegies was completely flooded.

The road towards the city finally emerged from the water around midday yesterday. It's a 20 minute drive through rural acreages to the next suburb and all the facilities it provides ( such as supermarkets and petrol stations ) but when we drove in yesterday the supermarkets were empty and so were the petrol stations. (There were people in cafes drinking coffee and eating cake !!!)

Diminishing petrol supplies (we have half a tank ) mean that we will not make the drive again until we know for sure they have supplies available. There are heaps of people working to clean up our flooded shopping centre and every flooded house has a large band of workers. These workers are being supplied with cold water and sandwiches by the CWA ladies.

The piles of rubbish outside houses is a sorry sight. The awful smell ! Rotting , spoiled food as well as mud containing heaven knows what.

So even though we are no longer isolated by floods, our community continues to cling together. Lack of fuel means we are staying close to home and doing what we can to help our neighbours and progress is pretty rapid there.

The next hurdle is the removal of all the rubbish but our Lord Mayor says he has it under control. Helpers must wear gum boots ( who on earth has those except horsey people ?) or work boots and gloves and in some places masks as airborn bacteria of some kind is causing a type of pnemonia. Our former Prime Minister , Kevin Rudd (a Brisbane resident), was hospitalised after contracting a foot infection from wading in the floodwaters so it is very important to be careful.

 I am sorry this post is lacking photos but it seemed such bad taste to be photographing people's misery.

Cheers.