Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Positive Thoughts Please For Those in Australia

Flag of Australia, when congruence with this c...Image via Wikipedia
I received an email from a dear high school friend who lives in Queensland. I wanted to check in with and emailed her earlier this week about all the insane flooding in Australia, I was worried about the her safety and wanted to make sure she and her family were OK. The devastation over there is incredibly frightening, and my thoughts go out to everyone in Australia right now. She did email me back and here is her email below, just to give you an idea of the magnitude of how frightening it must be and how we should all stop and think positive thoughts right now for everyone over there going through this tragedy.

Hey mate,   
 It is crazy all right.. I know the world was stunned by New Orleans but imagine what we have happening here at the moment.. My state is huge, (almost 5times the size of california) and a third of it is underwater... The size of what is underwater is 1.5 times the size of the whole state of cali, and that is get worse inthe next 1or 2days. ... Our capital is starting to go under water.. All inner city has shut down and been evacuated, there are parts of houses and ships, cars floating down the main brisbane river.. Toowoomba the city just about 2hrs from us was the one where you saw the inland tsunami happening.. It is so bizarre... It is up on the ranges and several hours inland, yet the wall of water that rain down the river and hit the town was larger than the tsunami that hit asia a few years ago...
 
There are staff members at my work that are still trying to get in contact with family in towns near us, and there is hundreds missing... Lots of staff are absent as they are either under water and been evacuated to nearby refuges or are cut off by road from the airport.. I am crying as I write this , it is so stressful.. When I arrive at work this morning at 0300 there were several hundred people sleeping near checkin because they got evacuated out of their homes, or hotels and were just desperate to get out of bris and book a ticket of change tickets to get home earlier.. I was checkin supervisor this morning and we did about 12000 passengers up till midday when I left, just one supervisor for 47staff as the other supervisor got flooded in... I am so emotionally drained I am shaking.. 
 
But at the end of the day I am lucky.. My family are all safe, my work will not be affected badly (meaning there is alot of people that have lost jobs as the companies they work for can no longer operate) and the house i rent is still not affected yet.. (i have been housesitting in the city but had to abandon the unit and come back to my rental house because the building i was housesitting was in the city and it has been evacuated).. My cousin up north in central qld has lost several million dollars due to floods and contracts, and lost property that will be unusable for months or maybe a year until everything can be fixed, but all his family are safe, and he will rebuild his fortune...
 
One guy at work has 6 or his 7 family members unaccounted for, in one of the towns that is completely shut off and underwater.. 
 
Anyway I am just raving now because i am so tired and emotional... Please ask all your friends just to spare a positive thought for us over here in 
Queensland.. Australians are such a tough bunch that get stuff in and do what is needed and we always help each other out, but it is just all a bit overwhelming here at the mo...
 
Hope life is good and sunny for your all in cali and I am sorry for offloading but as I said above, just a bit overtired and overwhelmed at the moment...
 
Cheers Carolyn

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