When the floods come

from w
When the Fiji news is trivia or grumbling about a rugby fund raiser, my attention is elsewhere, particularly our concern for the people of Queensland where three-quarters of the state are affected by floods, a disastrous tsumani type wave of water in Toowoomba and up to 20 metres rise in one of the rivers. Even Brisbane may have 100,000 houses in trouble. The TV news in Australia is obsessively concentrating on stories of the floods which will be unprecendented, even worse than the floods there in 1974. Many people are missing, many deceased and the stories are of cars (with people in them), containers, houses, floating by.

However people are mainly resilient and will survive the trauma of such loss. As one woman said, 'You've got to be strong and just keep going. That's the Australian way'.

This reminds me of the people of Fiji who suffer the damage of cyclones and floods and the wastefulness that wind and water can bring. Neighbours help neighbours and everyone pitches in to start again. Time after time.

The weather is so strange. Though rain in Queensland is expected, these floods are 'Biblical' as someone said, huge. Even in the southern part of Australia it has been humid and wet. Some country towns where a dry heat is expected in summer, have had five inches of rain in a day. Now that sounds like what we once experienced in Taveuni and that scared me at the time.

Our prayers are for the people suffering in the Queensland floods as we ask why our world offers so many trials and tribulations to the good and the bad - everyone - no favourites.