Crazy week of weather!

Since I last posted, 

Queensland had to deal with some 

very nasty weather when

Cyclone Oswald threatened our North Queensland towns. 

It became an unstable storm cell, 

listed as Category 1 on a cyclone scale,

and slowly moved down the Queensland coastline 

 with gale-force winds and rain. 

Some areas suffered severe flooding 

similar to the floods of January 2011.

If that wasn't enough, 

SIX tornadoes developed and wreaked havoc 

further north of Brisbane.

One morning, we awoke to find that even 

BRISBANE was on tornado alert! 

I've never known that to happen before. 

Bundaberg and other towns are still inundated with flood waters 

and thousands of people have been displaced. 

Many had to be rescued from rooftops.

Death toll stands at six.

It's heart-wrenching! 

Queensland now faces a major clean-up.

We have been told to conserve water 

as one of the water treatment plants had to shut down 

due to the volume of mud and silt that was 

washed into the Brisbane River. 

Needless to say, 

people went into a panic and bought up ALL of

the bottled water from supermarket shelves.

160,000 homes lost power and, 

as of last night, some were still waiting for 

power to be restored. 

Friends of family have been without power 

since Saturday, poor things.

I am very grateful to live where we do 

as it seems we are in a fairly safe and sound area 

when it comes to flooding and power. 

That said, there were road blocks due to flooding 

not far at all from where we live.

Due to all the cyclonic weather 

sea foam developed at some of our beaches.

This video was taken at Alexandra Headland 

and shows bystanders, including two policemen, 

getting the surprise of their lives while 

watching a bus drive through the sea foam. 

A near miss for sure!

If you can't view it here,

try THIS direct link to YouTube.

Definitely nothing as interesting

going on in our own backyard. 

I put my potted plants outside 

to drink up some rainwater.

They LOVE rainwater! 

As parts of our gutters overflowed, 

I decided to catch me some rainwater 

for later use in the garden.

We ran out of containers to fill waaaaaaaay before it stopped raining 

but at least we saved a fair amount. 

Even the grass is now greening up
from the horrid, scorched brown colour it was before.

To end this post with a feel good mood.

I chose this video which shows how 

a random act of kindness 

can flow on and on.....ENJOY!

If you can't view it here,

try THIS direct link to YouTube.

Aaron started back at school yesterday after 

the annual school break. 

My baby is in Year 9 now!

It's time to get back to a regular routine so 

you should be seeing more posts from me.

Have a lovely week!

~ Love, light and peace ~

UPDATED: Praying for our New Zealand neighbours

I was planning to write a different blog post today but, in light of this horrific situation, I have put my regular posting off until tomorrow.

Photo courtesy here.

My thoughts today are with our neighbours across the Tasman as the city of Christchurch, New Zealand, sustained a level 6.3 earthquake earlier today.   This earthquake was actually an after-shock from the earthquake they had in September of last year, however, it has left much more devastation and destruction in its wake due to it being more shallow. There are 17 65 people now confimed dead and this toll is expected to rise with people still trapped in buildings.  More reports of the situation are here and here.

On a personal note, we are also very concerned for my Son-in-law's Mum who flew into Christchurch with her partner only yesterday and Alex has been unable to find out if she is okay.

UPDATE - I'm happy to report that Alex's Mum managed to post a message on Facebook to let everyone know she was okay. Thankfully, they had left Christchurch only a few hours before the earthquake hit.  We are all so relieved. Thanks so much for your well wishes.

~ Love, Light and Peace ~

Please keep Northern Queensland in your thoughts tonight.....

.....as the worst cyclone in our history is set to hit our northern coastline in just hours and it's wrath will reach as far inland as Mount Isa.  This is a life-threatening cyclone and is 500km wide! They are warning that it will bring violent storm swells of approx. 7 metres above high tide levels near the eye of the cyclone. Over 10,000 people have been evacuated and there are major fears that lives may be lost.  This seems so unbelievable as it comes fast on the back of all the flooding we've experienced in past weeks.  Thankfully, we live in South East Queensland so are relatively safe although we are sure to catch some chaotic weather in the backlash. Tonight, my heart will be with my fellow Queenslanders up North.  I pray that no lives are lost.

This is really scary stuff!

CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE

Here is a site that compares the size of Cyclone Yasi if it were superimposed in countries around the world.

Here is a news update from today.

Your thoughts and prayers are most welcome. 

----- UPDATE -----
Cyclone Yasi hit land just after midnight and the Mission Beach and Tully areas sustained major damage.  A second storm surge still threatens some areas.
Read more HERE.

I didn't get much sleep at all last night worrying for what my fellow Queenslanders were enduring. I'm so thankful that there was no loss of life.  

Thanks so much for all your well wishes and prayers.

 ~ Love, light and peace ~

Hello from flood-ravaged Queensland

Thanks so much for all the emails of concern for me and my family regarding the devastating circumstances Brisbane has been facing with the floods.  Thankfully, we live on a different river system on the outskirts of Brisbane so have managed to stay safe but our hearts sank deep witnessing what our fellow Brisbanites and Queenslanders have been through.....I've shed many tears.  The situation facing thousands is dire but the Aussie spirit remains strong in the face of it all and we will all pull together and recover. Our Federal and State governments have been amazing and are doing everything in their power to help ease the suffering and are also offering immediate financial relief to flood victims.  The State Emergency crews have been working around the clock and their efforts have been heroic.  Forty-eight evacuation centres were set up where thousands of Brisbane residents sought refuge as their homes literally flooded while the Brisbane River peaked overnight. The stories of heroism and loss of life have been heartwrenching.  Brisbane's sister city - Ipswich - also copped a battering and, Toowoomba, a city in the mountain ranges experienced what has been described as an 'inland tsunami'.  The residents there had no warning and the video footage was unbelievable!  The clean up in the flood affected areas across Queensland will be massive!

75% of Queensland has been declared a disaster zone.

Death toll is currently : 12 15

Persons currently missing : 62 but fluctuates
110,000 Brisbane homes without power
Major road and rail systems cut off and damaged

Some links of interest -

Latest news this morning
River hazard
Save my brother
Devastation in Grantham
Toowoomba flood footage
Queensland Flood - Slideshow

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 We are glued to the TV watching the news events as they unfold and feel guilty that we are safe while so many are suffering.  

 My son, Beau, works for the RSPCA - animal shelter/refuge - and, yesterday, he went in to help with the evacuation of all the animals to safe areas as the shelter was going under.  Initially, he had trouble getting there because sections of major roads were under water so had to find alternative routes.  Thankfully, temporary foster families were found for all the animals and a large vet centre took some in too.

Last night, Beau and Reece were going in to the flood affected areas to help with sand-bagging but police stated they had enough volunteers for last night but more may be needed over the coming weeks.  The offers of volunteer help have been amazing!

Food supplies are critical and, even the shelves in our local supermarkets are emptying fast to the point where we are being rationed on the food items such as bread, milk, eggs, meat, poultry etc.  No bottled water was left on the shelves when we were at the supermarket yesterday.  Most of Queensland has been flood affected - farms and crops devastated - and this will dramatically affect vital food supplies and prices for months to come.

I was 15 when the '74 floods hit Brisbane and I remember it well.....this current situation is just as devastating.

Please keep Queensland in your thoughts and prayers.

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Sorry I haven't been able to ease your concerns any sooner but I had a stroke of bad luck when my poor old computer died three days ago and I had to get a new one. It has taken a while to set up the new one and install necessary programs.

Prior to the serious flood situation, I had done another art journal page complaining about the rain.....at that stage, I had no idea just how bad it was going to get.

On the homefront, due to the excessive rainfall and the new housing lot development behind our fence, we have still been dealing with water pouring into our backyard during the rain periods.  While this is a minor hiccup compared to the larger flood disaster across Brisbane, I'm all aches and pains right now because Aaron and I jumped the back fence two days ago and desperately tried to dig trenches in a futile attempt to divert water away from our back fence.  My back injury has flared up and I am battling migraines due to the emotionally gut-wrenching situations we have been seeing in our city. I'm feeling sad and depressed about it all.

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For obvious reasons, I haven't been able to catch up with blogs or respond to emails - a lot of which I lost when my computer died - but my heartfelt thanks goes out to all who have emailed me privately or commented on my blog. 

Again, please keep Queensland in your thoughts and prayers....as the flood waters recede, the hard work of cleaning up begins.

~ Love, light and peace ~