With love to Brisbane

I just couldn’t resist this photo (cheeky as it is), but sincerely do want to express concern for our readers Down Under who may be dealing with the difficult, messy, frustrating, expensive and perhaps even heartbreaking task of cleaning up after the recent flooding. It’s been a busy world these last few weeks, one that has kept PW scrambling. I would love to hear how our Australian fans are doing with it all, but understand those hardest hit may still be struggling to connect with the internet. – amanda

6 thoughts on “With love to Brisbane”

  2. Amanda a great picture.

    Today Melbourne’s Herald Sun paper shows the first funerals to emerge. There is one in particular which is sad because a 13 yr old boy, Jordan Rice, will be remembered as a hero. His actions saved his 10 yr old brother, Blake Rice, when the family became trapped in their car in last weeks flash floods. This boy urged the rescuers to save his 10 yr old brother’s life. He and his mum drowned.
    At yesterday’s funeral his older brother says about Jordan ‘ You were so shy, always hanging off Mum’ he said ‘You were petrified of water, heights and even the dark. How wrong was I? Here you go, losing your life from one of the biggest fears to save your little brother..what you did took heart, courage and love.’

    It struck me that when there is a call to grow, even under adversity, the spirit soars.

    Best

  3. E2, thanks for the vivid picture. it’s striking to know that without the infrastructure you mention, floods can be exponentially more devastating.

  4. I lived through the highest rainfall in a 24 hour period in the continental US, caused by Tropical Depression Claudette. 42 inches in 24 hours, officially, but that was at the weather station. The people with rain gauges in our area swore it was 47 inches. It didn’t help that it was a full moon and winds blew onshore.

    Once the water went down, it was mud everywhere, fish in the bathtub, alligators in the swimming pools, crabs in the street blown in from the Gulf, and most stuff ruined. For months the ruined sheetrock was piled high by the curb for pickup, no one had much furniture, the mold and mildew went even wilder than usual, and bleach was our best friend. Houses close to creeks were condemned if the current had ruined the structure, but most of them just needed to be gutted and rewired and re-sheetrocked.

    We were lucky, though. In a wealthy society, there were few deaths, houses were generally strong enough to survive structurally, the disaster declaration gave people access to low cost loans, and we didn’t have to deal with epidemics and famine afterward. People helped each other clean up. The worst losses were the pictures and sentimental objects, as always. You never forget it, but if you are lucky, you remember how people helped one another and you have a new appreciation how little material things matter. Aussies are too tough to let this stop them for long.

    And the smell goes away. Eventually.

  5. Ditto that. All the best to all the Ozzies. Once Uranus is out of Pisces, the water thing should change. Neptune into Pisces (as well as Chiron) should give us a idea what the long term will look like.

    This photo demonstrates the abundant spirit and resiliance of Australians. Thank you, Amanda, for posting it.

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