Saturday, January 25, 2014

What a Disaster!!!!

With the Internet and other media we are kept informed with natural disasters around the world - often we can watch the disaster unfold LIVE on our televisions or computers.  It is quite amazing - something my grandparents would have no concept of (even if they were alive).

Does your story (or your subject's story) involve any disasters?

I think of this as (a) we celebrate Australia Day tomorrow (January 26th) and we acknowledge that it is (b) the anniversary of some major disasters in our Queensland history.  (Queensland is the state of Australia on the north east coast of our great country!).

Fortunately for me, I have not personally been involved/directly affected by these disasters, but I have stories around them.

For example, in 1974 when the city of Brisbane was flooded, I was not living in Queensland - but in Sydney, but my husband had received notification that we would be moving to Brisbane for him to take up a new position.  I had never been to Brisbane - and watched in awe as the city that was to be our new home was flooded.  You can read about it here.  As it turns out, as the city was recovering, I was sent to Brisbane on my own in order to find a house for us to move into.  My recollection of the floods was seeing the devastation at the mouth of the Brisbane River as the plane flew over in preparation for landing at the airport which is on the northern border of the river.  Houses, debris, old cars, trash, trees etc scattered the landscape below - it made one hold one's breath!

Brisbane does not get cyclones, though has been affected from time to time by cyclones further north - and I can remember several times when we were fearful of the horrific winds, and the floods, but as I said earlier I have not been close to the action.

In 2011 Brisbane was hammered with a major flood, and I was house sitting at the time.  As the rains lashed the city I did have my two grandchildren with me and we drove in the rain, which was not heavy when we set out to go to a Bead Shop, but by the time we wanted to return, it was rather scary finding our way home avoiding flooded roads.  I took them to their home, and my daughter wanted me to stay with her - but I insisted on driving to my house sit, despite the challenges.  But I had no clothes, no anything with me and the idea of living in the same clothes and without my computer for a few days did not appeal. Luckily I made my way safely to the house sit, but I did have to cope with limited food (the supermarkets were emptied by panic buying and could not get restocked).  I went to the river and took photos of some of the dramas - high water levels, much household items washing down the river etc. and took photos. 

As I write this, there are warnings of a new cyclone forming in the Coral Sea, which has the potential to cause problems to us - but so far I have been safe.

At Christmas 1974 Cyclone Tracy devastated Darwin in the Northern Territory.  As it turns out my family and I were in Mount Gambier in South Australia - we had driven south to spend Christmas with my parents, and as it was Christmas Day and we were so buys enjoying our Christmas we had no idea until Boxing Day of the devastation that the cyclone caused on that day.

We have been flooded in from time to time - but no event is particularly significant.  It is just part of living in the sub-tropics.

In 2001 when the terrorist attack in New York occurred we watched the events over and over again, in awe, but luckily for us, no one we knew was in New York.  But I think everyone remembers where they were when they first saw/heard the news!!

As you can see, I have not yet (and hopefully never will) been affected by a natural disaster - but many have.  It is a question worth asking when you are talking with someone about their life story.

Many people have fascinating stories that could/should form part of their Life Story.

Don't forget to ask....

(Have you been involved in a major natural or other disaster?)



Nabanita said...

That's truly something to ponder upon..I remember being in Physics practicals in school in 2001 when the attacks took place...

kid GL loves said...

What an amazing post - found your post from Ultimate blog challenge - and you have certainly been but your experiences provide a very interesting read. You're right, I think you always remember where you were the day the Towers were struck - really enjoyed reading this. I remember the Hurricane England had in 1987. We live in a county called Buckinghamshire and weren't directly affected but remember my mum coming to pick up me and my friend from school and we were being blown home.

peter petterson said...

You had a habit of being elsewhere in OZ and missed the disaster. You have the floods and we have the earthquakes.