Community Service

Today I worked at a friend's house on the corner of Riverview St and Gray St.  Their house stands on stilts about 5 feet off the ground.  There was nearly  2 feet of water that went through their house.  We worked all day scouring, scrubbing and mopping mud from the floor and walls of their house, and we still aren't done.  I will go back there tomorrow to help them with the efforts so they can hopefully move back in within a week.  It is absolutely incredible how much mud and muck there is everywhere in that area.  Actually, it's sad really.  I helped them drain the pool of the murky mud water.  Granted, a pump did most of the work except for about the 15 buckets at the end that we did by hand.  There were numerous fish and crawfish dead and alive.  Let's just say that after a hard days work like that, I am completely exhausted.  Or, as the Aussies would say, I'm buggered.

Throughout the day, we had complete strangers come to the house to offer their help.  One lady brought freshly baked cookies.  Another guy helped remove all of the wet carpet and padding from the front yard.  We even had a guy come by offering to pressure wash the house with the water tank he had on the back of his truck.  The fire department stopped by, as well as some people from the city council to give us info about where to go for cleaning supplies and insurance info.  This out pour of help just shows the generous and resilient spirit of the Australian people. 

I didn't take any pictures today because I don't think it is right to publicize someone else's misfortune.  However, here is a link from the paper that shows updated photos.  Here is a picture that I took the other day.

Emerald is famous for a huge Vincent van Gogh picture that is in the center of the town's park.

Can you see where the van Gogh is in this photo?  Kinda puts it all into perspective, huh?

When the Waters Recede......

An aerial view of Emerald on December 31, 2010

To view more flood pics, click here.

Now that the flood waters have started to recede, the cleanup begins.  Where there once was a few feet of water, now lies mud & dead fish.  The stench is horrible.  Worse then the cleanup and the smell is the absolute devastation that some families now face.  Some people weren't prepared and there were a lot of people that were out of town for the holidays that couldn't prepare at all.  There are some families that have lost everything.   The sadness of this is nearly overwhelming. It was impossible to predict exactly where the water would go and how bad it would get.  Overall, 80% of our town was covered by water.  The flood waters covered a portion of Queensland equivalent to an area the size of Germany & France put together.

Michael and I were some of the lucky ones to be spared by the ravaging flood waters.  The water made it as far as lapping at the sand bags at our front door. I was finally able to walk down the street to our house, a task that was impossible just yesterday.  The only signs of the flood outside of our house is the mud in the grass and driveway.  Inside of our house is a mess of a different kind.  When you only have a day to prepare for a flood, you do whatever you can to raise your possessions as high off the floor as possible.  In our case, we even moved some of our furniture out to higher ground.  When the waters recede, the clean up begins.....however our cleanup involves putting our house back together again.

Our kitchen table raised and stacked high

Tomorrow I will go to a friend's house that didn't have the same luck as us.  They live across the street from the river and probably got a few feet of water into their newly raised home.  Surprisingly enough, they still have a great attitude about cleaning and rebuilding.  After all, they are expecting a new baby later this month.  Some things that I have learned about the Australian people from this unfortunate event is that they have an incredible perseverance of character and an unlimited willingness to help out other people in need.  It is amazing to see the generosity of people's time and resources during a catastrophe like this.  It seems as if the flood has brought this small community closer together.  I have to say, It feels good to be apart of such a community.

Some irony I've found along the way:

• Proof of our once water front home:  see the dead silver fish in the above picture.

• There was vacancy at the Overflow Motor-Inn during the flood.  Could it be because it was only accessible by water?
• There are so many helicopters flying around including a blackhawk helicopter, our town sounds like a military zone.  I guess that happens when we are only accessible by the air.  Many roads have been washed away by the water.
• There are storms on the horizon.  We are only half way into the rainy season.
• The next town down stream to be hit by the flood water was Rockhampton.  Last night they featured the movie Waterworld.  Was this a strange coincidence or poor taste in pre-programming?
  
• And finally, I watched as much of the movie as I could but couldn't stay up to finish it.  When I got into bed the clock read 11:11pm.  I finished the first day of 1/1/11 at 11:11pm.  Happy New Year 2011!

I did it. I've finally created my blog.

Ok, so here it is.  Here is my blog:  Following the Adventure of My Extraordinary Dreams.  Pretty good title, huh?  At least I think it is.  It's been nearly a year of suggestive encouragement from my friends and family to put all of my adventures on paper (or in this case cyberspace, yikes!).  Finally I have done it, partly because of my 2011 New Year's Resolution but mostly because I always want to remember these days.  Better yet, I want to share these adventures with my loved ones that are literally all over the world.  You know who you are.

I'm not too sure what all of my apprehension was.  Now that I am sitting here writing, it doesn't seem all that bad or difficult. Mostly, I think I wasn't sure where to start.  But here I am, diving head first into my blog.  So let me start by saying, I hope you find my blog entertaining and interesting.  I genuinely hope that it  will show a glimpse into the ordinary days of my otherwise extraordinary life.  A life that I believe is worth sharing.

Currently, I am confined to a hotel room in our little flooded out town of Emerald, QLD. The media is calling this a "100 year flood" and it has covered 80% of our town. We were evacuated from our house on Wednesday and moved into this hotel temporarily. We are unsure of when we can move back home which was spared by the water.  Michael is the Operations Manager of the electrical company and has been working non-stop during this emergency.  Therefore, I'm left alone here to entertain myself.  Cabin fever is beginning to set in and it has only been 3 days.  I have a feeling that I will be blogging a lot as long as I am here with Internet.  Stay tuned for more to come and thanks for reading.