floods

The following was written after the floods.

It's 6:30am. I've been up for an hour in a world that is fresh and bright and very green. The birds are done, the horses out, cats fed, coffee made (but not drunk). R has just returned from his morning constitutional with the whippets. It feels as though what R and I call desert weather is approaching. This is based upon our short time in New Mexico where the air was so dry that the days were hot and the nights were cold as there was nothing to shield the earth from the sun's rays nor a particle blanket to prevent the earth from losing heat at night. For Queensland, in the summer, this is not usual and seems to presage desperate weather.

We had 55mm (over two inches) in an hour. The creek belted down, half flooded the paddock again, the peach paddock completely awash (should've taken a photo but didn't think of it til afterwards). Took a bike ride after the worst was over and had fun battling flooded DGR. So much debris that branches as thick as R's arm were washed up onto the high center of the road. Water 1/3 of the way up the bike wheels and currents so strong I had difficulty staying upright. But so much fun too! Pedaled like a mad woman as it was raining still and I needed to warm up but once warm I didn't feel the rain anymore. And this was just near dark so all the verges were singing with not only the sound of running water but frogs and crickets. Dusk has always been a magic time.

Karla's sister and kids fine although the kids are getting counseling. The house was lost. 20 dead, 12 still missing. There's a HUGE community response; everything from making and taking food to the, on Sunday 11,000 volunteers, who show up and clean houses, playing fields, businesses, to people fostering wild and domestic animals. Some guy in China is collecting $$ because we helped them during their floods. In town a salon was donating $10 from every colour or tint they did to the flood. People are donating heavy equipment (gov't pays for fuel), pumps, skills - plumbers, electricians, etc. You name it, someone's doing it for nothing. This is the first time the internet has played a part, a very large part in the recovery. Facebook and twitter are integral to the recovery. Someone started a site on FB for baked goods. Armed with mobile phones and ipads they find areas all over Brisbane that need food and send out agents with fresh baked goods, lunches or drinks. Mothers that can't get out and physically clean houses bake like women possessed, have their products picked up and delivered where it's needed. Our premier, Anna Bligh, who got alot of bad press prior to the disaster has been exemplary in her handling of it; the right amount of tough incisive decision making and emotion (she almost broke down twice during press conferences). During the height of the disaster she was giving information to the public every two hours, willing to delegate and receive information from those experienced in their fields, very human but a tower of strength. I was losing faith in her and probably will again as I don't agree with her policies, but as a leader during a disaster I can't think of anyone who could be better. She has been just amazing.