Samson Abeyagunawardena, reporting from Australia
20 January 2011
20 January 2011
During the first ten years of this decade much of Australia was in drought, managing huge fires which raged across areas thousands of square kilometres in extent. Now Australians are coping with floods. The total area under flood water in the states of Queensland and Victoria is about twelve times the area of Sri Lanka. Some eighty cities and towns in these two states are inundated. One observer reported how thin the veneer of civilization turned out to be as Brisbane, Queensland’s capital with a population of two million people, was quickly and methodically reduced to the level of a Third World village by flood water. A furiously flowing wall of water turned Lockyer, a normally lush valley west of Brisbane, into a war zone. Several towns in Victoria are also inundated.
"This is the price of being Australian", one newspaper headlined a front page lead story on the floods. Australia is a wet, dry country. It is the world’s driest continent. In the summer we burn. And every few decades some parts of the land experience torrential rain, flash floods and destruction on an epic scale. Cyclones of varying intensity frequently batter settlements on the coasts of Australia’s east, north and north-west. On Christmas Eve in 1974 a cyclone wiped out the city of Darwin, in the north of Australia.
Many stories of bravery, heroism and tragedy are coming out of the current floods. Among those of tragedy, the entire nation grieves over the death of 13-year old Jordan Rice.
Jordan, his mother Donna, and 10-year old brother Blake were trapped in a car pummelled by a wall of flood water in Toowoomba, their home city in south-eastern Queensland. Jordan could not swim. As the water began to engulf the car, two rescuers swam to try save the three occupants. Jordan insisted that his younger brother be rescued first. This was done. When the rescuers returned to save Jordan and his mother, the lifeline snapped and there was little they could do. Mother and son were swept away in the flood and perished.
Yesterday Donna and Jordan were laid to rest in matching caskets in the same grave. There are calls by institutions and individuals across the country to name Jordan Rice as The Young Australian of the Year 2011.
Queensland’s Premier Anna Bligh said the thoughts of all Australians were with the Rice family.
Australia’s Treasurer Wayne Swan said today that this month’s floods will possibly be the biggest natural disaster for Australia in economic terms as relief arrangements and reconstruction will cost the Australian federal government and state governments several billions of dollars. He added it would take years for the country to complete the re-building process after the floods have subsided.
The Australian government has deployed twelve thousand troops to help with the clean-up of Queensland. They are mopping-up houses and removing rubbish from the streets of Brisbane and flood-affected towns elsewhere in the state. An unpaid citizen army of truck drivers, tradespeople, construction workers and anyone capable of wielding a shovel have begun clean-up of post-war proportions in Brisbane and other flood affected towns.
Disaster has not sapped the morale of the Australian people. As one newspaper stated in its editorial: "A particularly laconic Australian frame of mind has helped the people get through the floods." People have refused to let disaster beat them. In this emergency, the mass evacuation of people took place swiftly and with little fuss. The print and electronic media showed pictures of people enjoying their beers outside a pub while flood water lapped at their feet. Another story is of a man who insisted on rescuing a drowning hen and reviving her with a hot water bottle and a hairdryer. To hundreds of people who gathered at high vantage points on the banks of the rapidly accelerating Brisbane River, the sight of cars, refrigerators, washing machines, television sets, sofas, pleasure boats torn from their moorings floating past was spectacular entertainment.
As the weather bureau today warned of more heavy rain to come in Queensland, a minister in the Queensland state government said the floods should not be regarded as a tourist spectacle and that people not volunteering to clean-up should keep away.
Some say, tongue in cheek, that perhaps there has been more despair here over Australia’s performance in the recently concluded Ashes Test cricket series than over the havoc caused by
Courtesy - The Island
