Amazing stories among the heartbreak.....

My heart feels like it is breaking at the moment with the floods happening here in Australia.  Even a week ago the area flooded was larger than Europe from England to past Greece.  Now it has stretched even further.  A lot further.  And will go even further still.  Queensland takes up around half of our eastern coast, and most of the state is flooded with the waters also extending down into New South Wales.


A wall of water 8 metres high rushed through Toowoomba on Tuesday with no warning, causing such devastation.  It has been described as an inland tsunami.  Toowoomba is located on a plateau 2,000 ft above sea level and when the water reached the edge it of course went over, causing total destruction below. 


As you know, my daughter Kylie lives in Toowoomba.  Thankfully she is still visiting us in Sydney at the moment.  I keep thinking that it would have been all too possible that if she had gone home when planned she and her two boys could have been shopping when that water went through, sweeping cars around like matchsticks and clearing shops of their contents.  We could have lost all three of them.  But there was already flooding occuring there.  A friend from two houses up sent us a photo of her back yard - just a sea of water.  And they are on a hill!  She checked Kylie's house and it appears to be okay at the moment - another blessing.


Now Brisbane, the capital city of Queensland is flooded, the water will rise again tonight with a King tide.  I have friends and relatives in Brisbane and other nearby places but can't contact them.   My friend in Bundaberg is safe but there is no food on the shelves in the shops, and long queues for petrol at the service stations.  In Dalby (an hour from Toowoomba) we have friends who have been flooded in for a few weeks now and another lot of water is on its way overland to them.  They manage a farm and their boss has airlifted supplies to them but they are in dire straits if this new lot of water is bad.


I could go on but want to share a story that was on one of the news feeds on the internet.  Here it is:


'Of all the startling images to have come out of the Queensland floods, this has to be the most unusual — a green frog hitching a ride on the back of a brown snake.

Computer technician Armin Gerlach was visiting friends in the flood-hit town of Dalby, located in the state's south-east, last week when he spotted the unlikely pair.


"I felt amazement, I just couldn’t believe it," Mr Gerlach told ninemsn.


Mr Gelach said a friend who had been affected by many floods told him animals often helped each other out during disasters.


"It's quite common when you have animals in floods or fires or disasters, they actually get together and don't do anything," he said.


"[My friend] has seen foxes and rabbits forget their hunting instincts during natural disasters," he said.


Mr Gelach said he and his friends were inspecting flood damage on the property
 
Sorry that it's not a great photo.  It's the best I can do, copying from the internet picture.  A brown snake by the way, is not only deadly, it is very aggressive!  It is one of the few snakes that will attack a human whereas most snakes will run - well, slither - away rather than confront a person.  But a brown snake will stand it's ground and attack.  So that makes it all the more remarkable.
 
There are many incredible images that will stay with me from this flood.  The tv channels all have 24hr coverage of it, so there is a lot to see.  But this is one of the images that brings a smile to my face!   
 
Another is of a bronze statue of one of Queensland's legendary football heroes.  He is still alive and was out helping people today.  But his statue is at the largest stadium in Brisbane, and someone had dressed it in a snorkel, mask and other swimming equipment!  It's great to see that even in the face of such disaster people can keep their sense of humour.  

The wet season is still only part way through so there is still a lot of rain to come, cyclones are hovering off both the east and west coasts.  There is more flooding in the near future.  It is already the worst natural disaster the country has ever experienced.

As the Premier of the state said 'We are Queenslanders. They breed us tough north of the border. They knock us down but we get up again/' Queensland, this New South Welshman (woman) salutes you and your spirit!  And the rest of Australia will show the same spirit, I know.