my flood story

after reading hello owls flood story, here's mine...
i think i've been in a state of shock since monday afternoon. while at work i heard toowoomba had some landslides and was flooding. was calm. got home and saw what had actually happened. still relatively calm but horrified at what i saw on the news. called my aunt who lives in forest hill, about 50km south of toowoomba. she was fine. she'd got everything up from underneath the house (she lives in a 2 storey qlder). my uncle was in toowoomba at the time, but was fine also (he is on the disaster relief committee, so has been flat out). was happy again and went back to watching info and looking at photos of the "inland tsunami". still trying to take in that i've sat in these places and walked down these streets.

(taken by krystal anderson)

(taken by trishtan jones)

while this was going on, my husband was driving to the sunshine coast (stupid i know!) for a surf contest. he called saying he was there and safe. relatively happy and content that my family was safe and sound. bed.

wake up tuesday morning to hear water levels have risen in forest hill. it felt so wrong to go to work. i didnt want to go, but well, had to. most of the morning was spent with calls between myself, mum, grandpa, my husband and my cousin (who lives in brisbane). husband called at 10ish saying forest hill is being evacuated. txt auntie deb and she said they were fine, just waiting to find out what was happening. got on with work for awhile. talking to a customer and my phone rang. it was my cousin. i was willing this person to hurry up with what they were saying so i could find out what was going on. my aunt was being evacuated. i felt relieved and scared at the same time. found out later on that they had been in the 2nd floor building of the school and they were waiting for the black hawk downs to evacuate them. took awhile for them as they had no where to land...there was water everywhere. came home and was glued to the news. gave me chills to see anna bligh almost crying on tv in her press conference. a phone call from my cousin last night. auntie deb was safe. she was on the last helicopter out of town after waiting nearly all day. she did hop off the helicopter ready to stay at home once they said it wasn't a forced evacuation anymore. someone talked some sense into her and she got back on the helicopter. her dog is at home on the balcony and their cockatoo has food in his cage.

(photo of forest hill evacuation taken by luke willey)

(photo of forest hill evacuation taken by luke willey)

after a stressful day, they are all pretty upset and worried, yet grateful they still have their lives.

my husband tried to get back at 10am in the morning, but only got 30mins out of the sunshine coast and was being evacuated from where he was stuck. cut off on the bruce highway at caboolture i think. thats where they are saying the bruce highway was cut off. yesterday in currumbin was eerie. it was a ghost town. no one was really venturing out even though we werent flooded and no-one from up north could come down.

i haven't wanted to do anything. no sewing. no blogging. and i know people are far worse off, but its the helpless feeling i don't like.  i did go to zumba though, got my mind off everything for an hour.

it's just a horrible thing that has happened.
i feel for the people who have lost everything.
i feel for the people in brisbane now just waiting for the river to rise.

auntie deb, pip and ben. i love you.

tara louise.