Rains of terror

I can’t believe that it is six months since the three of us stood watching on our balcony in amazement many floors up here at Toowong, as Mother Nature was at work during the Brisbane floods. It is something that I think if I hadn’t seen I would never have believed and quite frankly I never want to see again.

I remember chatting on the phone to hubby whilst I stood watching what I felt at the time was abnormally heavy rain on the Thursday/Friday prior to that dreadful Toowoomba weekend. I clearly remember thinking and telling him that the rain was falling so heavily that I literally could not see the buildings across the road from us and at the same time I had a feeling of fear about the ferocity of these rains falling from the sky. My fears were about to come to fruition.

Watching the news that weekend (not realising that in two days’ time our power would be off for ten days and I would miss a hot shower so much, not to mention having to walk up and down ten flights of stairs during these ten days….yes weight was lost much to my delight), and having been an avid watcher of the news since the commencement of north Queensland’s floods days prior whilst observing the colossal waters as they hit Toowoomba, we all knew that big waters heading down our Brisbane river was inevitable, we just didn’t know how much water Mother Nature was sending us.

My eldest was in London at the time these rains started to fall up north and watched it happening on their news. It was on more than one occasion when watching the flood devastation, she viewed our actual apartments which sit alongside the river, commenting to her fellow TV viewers ‘that is where I live.’ Her London friends would respond yes we know you live in Brisbane…’no that is where I live right there where that blue thing is, that is our pool.’ Our pool sat in the middle of our complex as blue as blue and was now well and truly surrounded by brown water and would be for two days! Gasps were heard around the TV room, she remembers this clearly.

Daughter was due to touchdown on the Friday night after the river peaked the day before. Not knowing how long we would be surrounded by the flood waters, I pre-empted ‘life’ and I went into ‘be prepared’ Girl Guide mode and emailed her asking her to present herself to the Royal Free Hospital to stock up on her life-dependent transplant medication. I knew her supplies would be low by now and not knowing how or when I would be able to drive to the Royal Children’s, her then hospital here in Brisbane and I knew I had to think ahead and of all possibilities. Here is the email I sent her Jan 12:

“Hi darl. Don't panic if you are trying to ring my mobile. I will be turning it off during your sleep time to conserve the battery. They may need to turn our electricity off today which is why I am sending you this and hence will only have mobile access. We are fine. Coro Drive is not flooded as yet but expected to be today. Internet may go down due to possible no electricity later today. I will email you again tonight if electricity is on. Anyway the plan is 1. Get meds from Royal Free 2. If we are not at airport (which we expect we hopefully will be) go home with Vanessa 3. If my mobile is off, leave a message. We are fine. Love you buckets XXX” Yes I was fine but also I was fearful but there was no way I was going to convey my fear to her.

After this email was sent via Facebook that day, power was lost here for ten days, our landline was lost for six weeks, my car went under five, yes five metres of water in our car park, I lost count of the plethora of boats, pontoons and debris which flowed down our ferociously fast and ever-rising river. I sat on our balcony, marooned for two days watching this happen before my eyes but all was OK considering what other Brisbane residence were going through. My daughter arrived home safely two days later, 14 Jan, which was the first day our roads were open in Brisbane.

What was to follow watching the clean-up could do nothing but renew my faith in humanity. The hundreds of volunteers who courageously came out to help those of us who had suffered; watching the army arrive by truckloads clad in their khaki uniforms armed with shovels etc.; observing our amazing police force in action; Wellington boots, rubber gloves, buckets, brooms, mops, disinfectant sales sky rocketed; Toowong K-mart stocking up with truckloads of torches and batteries are to mention but a few of the ‘goings on’ I observed and which went into getting this fabulous city back to where we were before that power force of water found us that dreaded weekend, having left its path of destruction.

Is life OK? Life is more than OK….we can’t control Mother Nature but we can certainly appreciate what we have and as the saying goes ‘what doesn’t kill you, only makes your stronger.’ Thanks Mother Nature for making me stronger.