Calling in the troops to deal with the rubble
It’s the ‘day after’ a week since the ‘Inland Tsunami’ reeked havoc on the streets of Toowoomba and the neighbouring towns of Grantham and Murphy’s Creek. We watched this amateur video in horror as cars were swept away like match sticks by a raging torrent of water in an area that is normally a small barely running creek.
I spent the next days watching the rivers rise in my neighbourhood – an hour east of Toowoomba. Houses completely inundated just down the road. As quickly as it came here… it went somewhere else. Turning everyone’s stuff into worthless rubble!
Since the waters have subsided, literally thousands of Queenslanders have turned out in force on the streets to help out their fellow mates. Most of the time, people they’ve never even met. The comrade brings tears to your eyes. I’ve driven through neighbourhoods and stopped to talk to people I never would have been game to. A g’day to a stranger at the local shop, ends up being a moment to listen to someones stories. Strangers sharing… everywhere there is brokeness… everywhere there are strong people doing their best to hold back floodgates of tears. So many lives lost… and some may never be found. It’s something we never expected to see on our doorsteps. Not in Australia… not in Sunny ‘Beautiful one day… perfect the next’ Queensland!
Truckload of clothes to wash. So grateful to the women (and Ian and Tim) in North Ipswich who did load after load to wash muddy, smelly clothes to help out their fellow Ipswich-ites!
One of the most powerful stories I heard on the ABC was about an Indian family who moved here about four years ago and became Australian citizens. The husband said if something like this happened in India no one would have come to save them… no one would have cared enough to send out a rescue team… they would have just been another casualty. But for them, here in Australia, living in Goodna they were rescued and they were cared for. Valued as a human being.
We’ve tragically seen lives lost during this flood…all of us affected somehow as we try to imagine how hard it would be if we lost someone close to us in such horrific circumstances. Makes you think hey? How do we respond when we hear about the floods in Brazil where the death toll is now over 650? One guy reported that he lost 23 relatives including his dad and son. (ABC PM report) Is it even possible to imagine such loss!
How do we respond to the daily disaster called hunger or malnutrition or cholera or malaria? Tragically, lives are lost every single day. Many preventable.
Let’s not let another disaster happen before showing love and compassion towards someone we don’t know. Life is too short to live alone.
‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment(C) greater than these.” Mark 12:31
I’d love to hear how you’ve been affected by this flood and stories of how your community banded together to rebuild and start again. May God bless you and be your provider.