{"id":680,"date":"2011-01-22T13:42:50","date_gmt":"2011-01-22T18:42:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.renando.com\/blog\/?p=680"},"modified":"2013-01-06T07:54:28","modified_gmt":"2013-01-06T07:54:28","slug":"my-ipswich-and-brisbane-2011-flood-experience-lose-a-house-gain-perspective","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sidewaysthoughts.com\/blog\/2011\/01\/my-ipswich-and-brisbane-2011-flood-experience-lose-a-house-gain-perspective\/","title":{"rendered":"My Ipswich \/ Brisbane 2011 flood experience: Lose a house, gain perspective"},"content":{"rendered":"

I live on an acre on the river in Ipswich, Queensland.\u00a0 The value of this statement is much less now than it was 10 days ago.\u00a0 This is my story.<\/p>\n

\"Ipswich-flood-2011-comparitive-Interactive-map\"<\/p>\n

Tuesday<\/h2>\n

It was raining Tuesday morning, as it had been for most mornings over the past several weeks.\u00a0 The rain this morning was particularly heavy and there was talk of disruption to the train line.\u00a0 By 10:00am, the rumour was I would be on the 11:00am train home or sleep in the office overnight.\u00a0 I wish I could say I was certain of my priorities before I received the call from my wife Theresa<\/a> asking me to come home. I wish for a lot of things lately that may or may not be true.<\/p>\n

There was an excitement in the air on the train ride home that morning.\u00a0 A woman across from me was speaking loudly into her mobile phone to her retail store managers, telling each of them it was raining quite heavily and that it was likely to rain some more.\u00a0 I suspect the phone calls were more for her benefit than the recipients on the other end based on her dissipating her nervous energy to fellow commuters with the same conversation after she eventually lost reception.<\/p>\n

As the train pulled into Ipswich, the gravity of the situation to each passenger was measured in their departures ranging from a casual saunter to an agitated sprint off the train. I put on my rain gear for the scooter ride home amidst groups of people waiting for a ride home.\u00a0 They spoke in nervous chatter filled with speculations that held no value apart from reassurance of those making the predictions.<\/p>\n

I turned down my street to meet a caravan of my neighbour\u2019s cars, trucks, and horse trailers coming my way through the heavy rain.\u00a0 It was the first of many surreal moments I would experience over the coming week. \u00a0I walked into the house with my standard introduction of \u201cI\u2019m home\u201d, which fell flat to the sight of my family moving books and items to top shelves against a backdrop of TV coverage of rising floodwaters.<\/p>\n

I was soon sent on a mission with my incredibly helpful friend Ariane to grab sand bags from the local counsel depot.\u00a0 This was based upon a seemingly urban myth that floodwaters have an aversion to sandbags like some sort of allergic reaction. Seeing the results of placing barriers around our doors like mystical wards to fend off the evil water gods passing over our domain, I can attest sandbags alone hold no such power.<\/p>\n

\"My<\/p>\n

My magical sandbag barrier<\/h6>\n

With my sandbag protection in place, and bottom shelf items turned into top shelf items, we had satisfied the mandate to \u201cdo something\u201d.\u00a0 I trekked down to view the river with Ariane, meeting up with two of my neighbours as we gazed upon the slowly rising brown expanse amidst the soft patter of rain.\u00a0 There was a general sense of \u201cshe\u2019ll be right, mate\u201d and conversations about previous flood levels well beyond what any of us were competent to discuss.<\/p>\n

\"Checking<\/p>\n

Checking out the back of my property with Ariane<\/h6>\n

Mandy and Phillip, pastors at our church, gave me a call when I returned to the house asking if we wanted to be evacuated.\u00a0 I politely declined based upon 1) my judgement of the vast distance between the river and my home, 2) the incredible job we did in picking our books up off the floor, and 3) being emboldened by the collective ignorance of the males in my neighbourhood. Mandy and Phillip are thankfully clever people.\u00a0 After they received an SMS from the council with revised higher river limits, they called direct to my wife who informed me we were evacuating.<\/p>\n

I can identify this point as when the blur began.\u00a0 With a couple of calls and a Facebook post, I had around 15 people in my home emptying it of my worldly possessions.\u00a0 While I am a manager in my company, my role over the 6 or so hour endeavour was to act as a conduit to my wife\u2019s instructions to the masses.\u00a0 The volunteers quickly realised this and began going direct, to which I gladly shuttled goods from home to the waiting transport.\u00a0 This same act was being performed in other homes across the region.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The volunteer army preparing for Chad’s pool party<\/h6>\n

\"Pastor<\/p>\n

Pastor Carl and company stealing my fridge<\/h6>\n

\"I<\/p>\n

I have never been more thankful for a horse trailer<\/h6>\n

\"Glad<\/p>\n

Glad Mandy thought to do the dishes before the floods<\/h6>\n

\"One<\/p>\n

One last look down my back yard.\u00a0 Water? What water?<\/h6>\n

Having cleaned out the majority of my belongings as darkness hid the oncoming river, we went up the street to crash at Ariane\u2019s place on top of the hill. \u00a0I drifted off to sleep with a mixed calm of uncertainty and inevitability, like being strapped into a roller coaster that may or may not crash through your house.\u00a0 We woke to no power and a driving desire to see the unknown.<\/p>\n

Wednesday<\/h2>\n

I scootered down to the house early around 6:00am to be met with water in the bend in my street just before my potentially submerged abode.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The bend before my house. Think my scooter can make it?<\/h6>\n

I could not see my house around the corner, but from the house to my right, the chance of morning tea on a dry floor was not looking promising.<\/p>\n

\"Number<\/p>\n

Number 95 up the street.\u00a0 It was not looking promising.<\/h6>\n

I hopped off my scooter and went for a wade.<\/p>\n

Floods educate you on the high and low spots on a road you never noticed before.\u00a0 I sloshed around the corner in waist-deep water to see my house high and dry and the river still a few metres away in my back yard.\u00a0 Theresa and Ariane soon arrived and we bagged up a few remaining items to carry out as I watched the water approach like a slow-moving train wreck in progress.<\/p>\n

\"That<\/p>\n

That pot will be wet in under an hour<\/h6>\n

Prompted by a phone call from Mandy and Phillip to leave before we were trapped, we headed off but not before I caught a glance of two bull terriers standing on my neighbour\u2019s nearly floating porch table. \u00a0Ariane once again came to the rescue, and we carried, cajoled and coerced two excitable and pathetic- looking pups over fences and through now-chest-high water to another neighbour\u2019s fenced yard up the hill.\u00a0 My ability to give people the benefit of the doubt was tested over the next two days with thoughts that the dogs were potentially abandoned to their own devices.\u00a0 Oh well, it is not for me to judge.<\/p>\n

With no power and communication through mobile and social media limited to the hour battery life on my iPhone, I settled into a surprising calm of no technology.\u00a0 I studied a bit, took some notes on thoughts, and tried (unsuccessfully) to stay off Facebook as much as possible to save battery life.<\/p>\n

The river was predicted to peak in Ipswich around 5:00pm that day.\u00a0 Anxious to see the \u201cworst case\u201d, Theresa and I headed back down to scope out the situation.\u00a0 We met up with a group of neighbours taking turns at manoeuvring a kayak around the bend.\u00a0 I left Theresa to wait for the return trip and strode into what I would discover to be neck-deep water.<\/p>\n

Rounding the bend for the second time that day and seeing my house waist-deep in water was less impacting than I thought it might be.\u00a0 This may be due to seeing my neighbour\u2019s house completely immersed or perhaps my senses were dulled from the raw sewage contributing to the colour of the river.\u00a0 Either way, Theresa and I slowly circled our home with casual comments about water beds and replacing the ugly bathroom tiles.<\/p>\n

\"My<\/p>\n

My “drive” way<\/h6>\n

\"Share<\/p>\n

Share a cuppa on the porch, anyone?<\/h6>\n

\"Snails<\/p>\n

Snails evacuated to higher ground as well<\/h6>\n

\"Our<\/p>\n

Our new water bed<\/h6>\n

\"Those<\/p>\n

Those sandbags didn;t work too well<\/h6>\n

\"Time<\/p>\n

Time to clean out the shed<\/h6>\n

Our photos and memories captured, we headed back, Theresa on the kayak and I on floating foot.\u00a0 I discovered on the return trip why the journey to my house was so easy.\u00a0 The river was receding as fast as it had come in and the pull was definitely away from where I wanted to be.\u00a0 At the lowest point in the bend, I was bouncing along neck deep on my tippy-tippy toes with my iPhone in a bag above my head.<\/p>\n

Bouncing along at about an inch per minute, the volume of my inner monologue was turned up as three helicopters passed overhead.\u00a0 I could hear the television reporters and police spokespeople complaining on the late news about this loser in Ipswich who wasted valuable emergency resources being saved simply because he had to see his house.\u00a0 I shared a few concerned looks with the displaced spiders skimming over the top of the water as I slowly bobbed two toe-hops forward, one back.<\/p>\n

After what seemed an eternity, I finally edged around the corner to see my wife and neighbours in deep conversation and the occasional chuckle.\u00a0 I later learned the direct quote went something like \u201cWant to see something funny? Your husband.\u201d\u00a0 Having dodged the doofus drowning award, I was man enough to take some chiding on my thankfully dry chin.<\/p>\n

We returned to our temporary residence for a needed drenching in clean water and disinfectant. The lack of power made for a fun camping atmosphere as we talked about what the day\u2019s observations would mean for our immediate future.\u00a0 We had confirmed that we were one of the fortunate ones who were insured for flood damage.\u00a0 Many we spoke to that day faced a terrible trifecta of 1) being flooded, 2) losing their belongings, and 3) being uninsured due to policy clauses that restricted payment based on the \u201ctype\u201d of flood.\u00a0 Most who happened to be insured attribute the fact to luck rather than some strategic decision.<\/p>\n

Stuff<\/h2>\n

The next several days ran together in a rush of adrenaline as we helped neighbours tear down their walls and had friends come over and do the same to our place. Our street looked like a war zone as people\u2019s lives were vomited upon the street.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A mountain in front of every house<\/h6>\n

Cars lined our dead-end road two and three deep as we were descended upon by volunteers and tradesmen working on the rebuild process.<\/p>\n

It was as if everyone decided to remodel at the same time with copious amounts of depression and anxiety. In addition to piles of personal property marking each residence, a makeshift dump yard formed in a vacant lot mid-way up the street, complete with bulldozers and stench.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A makeshift tip<\/h6>\n

I was amazed at how much we collect.\u00a0 Like a frog turning it\u2019s stomach inside out<\/a>, our most private innards were exposed for all to see.\u00a0 It did not matter if others thought it to be insignificant or trite, this stuff that once was ours was now given the same treatment as liver leftovers from last week.<\/p>\n

\"Flood<\/p>\n

Flood Santa brings you wet stuff<\/h6>\n

You can\u2019t help but consider how much of what we hold dear has true value.<\/p>\n

Community<\/h2>\n

The community support during the clean up was incredible. Friends, church, and local volunteers descended upon affected areas to lend a hand. Yes, I lost my home, but the relationships developed through the journey are invaluable.<\/p>\n

\"Theresa<\/p>\n

Theresa entertaining the troops<\/h6>\n

\"Ice<\/p>\n

Ice cream break.\u00a0 We won;t ask if they washed their hands first.<\/h6>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The local SES offering assistance.\u00a0 He just offered to buy me a new house!<\/h6>\n

\"Kalie<\/p>\n

Kalie moving water, and loving it<\/h6>\n

\"Ariane,<\/p>\n

Ariane paddling through the river of sheet rock<\/h6>\n

\"Mark<\/p>\n

Mark likes his gloves<\/h6>\n

Why me?<\/h2>\n

A few days after the flood, we were asked to have a conversation in front of our church about our experience.\u00a0 In addition to sharing our story and expressing our immense gratitude for everything they had done and continue to do for us, we were asked the question \u201cDo we every feel \u2018Why me? Why did we get flooded and others not?\u2019<\/em><\/strong>\u201d<\/p>\n

Do I feel \u201cWhy me?\u201d Yes, absolutely.\u00a0 Why were we fortunate enough to get the majority of our household goods out when others lost everything?\u00a0 Why did we have insurance, when others did not?<\/p>\n

Expanding our scope, a few days before our house got hit a flash flood in Toowoomba<\/a>, a town a few hours away, took several lives from a freak inland \u201ctsunami\u201d.\u00a0 Even as we were dealing with our crisis, landslides in Brazil killed hundreds<\/a>, with thousands more to be impacted from lack of infrastructure and support.<\/p>\n

Why me?\u00a0 Why am I so fortunate to be limited in impact to only<\/em><\/strong> have to replace my house?\u00a0 Why do I live in a country that has the capacity to bring support and services online<\/a> within days of an incident?\u00a0 Why is it that I am graced with a position in a company<\/a> that supports their staff through an event, and sends a team of programmers to clean another affected employee\u2019s home that went completely underwater?\u00a0 Why was I given such community support from a local church<\/a>?<\/p>\n

I did not have the answer that morning, and I do not now.\u00a0 I do know I am fortunate.\u00a0 Most of you with the capacity to read this blog are significantly more fortunate than a vast portion of the world\u2019s population.\u00a0 You too can ask yourself \u201cWhy me?\u201d.\u00a0 I do not believe that is a question that needs to be answered.<\/p>\n

With an understanding of what you have to be grateful for, the question that should follow is \u201cWhat are you going to do with it?<\/strong><\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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