Weekend fun

Photos from our weekend adventure walking behind waterfalls. One of my top five favourite activities to do. We've had lots of rain in the past couple of months so there was plenty of water to see and enjoy.

Waterfalls are one of God's most amazingly beautiful creations. We're so blessed to live less than an hour's drive away from all of this.

Ironic

As the rain has been pouring down here for the past four or five days, our shire has been hit with water restrictions because of a breakdown in the pumping station.

They are telling us no external water usage is allowed until it's fixed and that we should take shorter showers and use our washing machines less.

This is going to make it quite difficult for those who need to clean up post-flooding.

Rainbow sighting

I saw a rainbow today as I was driving home from doing the school and child care drop off.

As I usually do, I told everyone in the car, "Look, there's a rainbow." Then realised there was in fact no one in the car and I was talking to myself.

Old habits die hard. It's been so long since I've been by myself that it now just feels weird.

How close it came

Mum and Dad's house yesterday. This is probably just short of how high the water level was at the flood peak. The latest update is that they think there was around 2-3cms of water inside.

We are going to try to get up there today with cleaning supplies, gumboots and fresh fruit.

Relief...

The floodwaters made it to my parents' yard and into their shed but most of the inside of their house was spared last night. All the floor coverings are wet and will need to be replaced but from what I can gather from the texts and facebook updates I have seen this morning, most of the furnishings will be salvaged.

This is relatively minor damage compared with what they had expected. As it panned out, they were right on the very edge of having a lot more water in their home. Their next door neighbours (still in Tasmania on holidays) had water in their house to about knee height. And other friends of theirs in the same suburb also had water in their houses.

I am told the yard is a mess and the shed will need to be cleaned out, but we are all feeling very relieved that they escaped relatively lightly this time around. I have spent the morning buying gumboots (in short supply in Brisbane right now) and other cleaning supplies to take up over the weekend to help with cleaning jobs in their street. We are also trying to get hold of a high pressure cleaner to take with us from down here since I guess they will also be hard to come by at this time.

The above photo was taken at the end of our street yesterday (similar to the place where the photo I posted a few days ago was taken during the 1974 flooding). This is the park I walked past every day coming home from school.

While there is relief for our family this time, my sister is already feeling some "survivor guilt" that she didn't do more for our neighbours or other friends who've experienced more significant flooding. But when they were predicting a peak over 5 metres, all they could do was work with the information they had. Much worse outcomes were predicted this time yesterday.

I feel so grateful to God for His kindness to us. I woke up in the early hours of this morning and couldn't stop thinking about what was happening inside the house where I grew up. Being the middle of the night, the time when everything always seems to be at its worst, all I could imagine was my childhood treasures and memories floating around in a muddy pond. It made me cry.

So this morning when I heard on the radio that houses in a street very close to the one my parents live in had been spared this time I was hopeful. And I cried again when I heard there wasn't a muddy pond inside their house.

Psalm 30:4-5: "Sing praises to the Lord, O You His saints and give thanks to His Holy name. For his anger is but for a moment and his favour is for a lifetime. Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning." (ESV).

It is not over yet though. We need to continue praying for all those who have been affected by this terrible natural disaster and those who have lost life, loved ones, homes and possessions in it.

Water is up to the house...

....but not in it yet. That was a couple of hours ago. We heard via text message from my brother in law.

So I guess it is going into the house now. The flood predictions have been revised down a little, so we are hoping it might not be quite as high as the 1974 levels now. It will still go inside but maybe some of the things that were moved up high might survive...

The television footage is unbelievable. The river looks so....angry....

Going to go under....

Wow. What a day. The news has been getting worse as the day has gone on.

When I called my sister this morning she was helping my parents pack things. I asked her if she thought it was serious....she said yes. And she is not one to make a big deal if there isn't one.

Now the predictions say that it will be worse than 1974 flood levels. I feel a bit duped. All this time we've been hearing the mantra that Wivenhoe Dam will save Brisbane from ever flooding again as badly as it did in 1974. They were wrong.

My parents' house flooded to the roofline last time around. If it's worse than that, it might not even be visible under floodwaters.

At least they knew early. Having been through the 1974 flood, they knew even late last night they would probably have to get out, so they have been able to prepare and get important things out to higher ground (but probably not heavy stuff like the pianola...). They have also had to grab what they can from their next door neighbours' home as they are on holidays in Tasmania.

I feel useless stuck down here. All we can do is keep on praying. Please pray for everyone in Brisbane who is waiting for the onslaught of floodwaters....

Surreal

I just found the flood map for my parents' suburb here. The blue tidal overflow seems to go right to the edge of my parents' property. Sounds like they have plenty of help getting things out of the house so that is good. And at least they have advance warning of what is coming so they do have time to move things.

The bad news is that it still seems to be raining there.

And life still seems to be going on as normal elsewhere...I have been keeping an eye on Facebook this morning where my sister in law is providing updates (hopefully she is erring on the side of over rather than under-dramatizing things) and I have been watching friends have conversations about normal stuff like birthdays and playstation games and general chit chat. That is a little bit hard for me to watch so I will go and do some cooking to take my mind off things...

Flooding....

....might get to my parents' house in the next couple of days. Their house in Brisbane went under in a big way in 1974 (up to the top of the windows) so I think they are quietly freaking out. The photo above was taken at the end of their street during the 1974 floods.

My sister and brothers are helping them move their stuff to higher ground just in case. Last time it happened they moved their stuff early when a lot of their neighbours didn't and their fears proved well-founded then. Hopefully it won't be the case this time.

I feel a bit useless here but I suspect arriving with three small children to offer assistance wouldn't be what's required right now.

Praying that all the talk about how Wivenhoe Dam is supposed to prevent Brisbane ever flooding like 1974 again turns out to be the truth and not just grandstanding. If you're reading this please pray for us.