Devastation in my Australian home-base

I've found it hard to concentrate the last 36 hours - ever since I discovered that Toowoomba, the town I grew up in, had suffered an unexpected flash flood right through the centre of town. Toowoomba sits on the cusp of the Great Dividing Range - at an elevation of about 600m. I've never seen a flood the likes of which we saw in video footage on Monday. Cars, a shipping container, a water tank and even rumour of a semitrailer truck flung down stream. It was shocking to say the least. But it was a flash flood - and didn't last long. Not too many houses were involved as that is the CBD. Many businesses were devastated as were roads and bridges. None of my family were affected.

Then came the news that on eastern side of the Range, down in the valley, similar inundation was being experienced. In fact that one hit more homes, with news of a house knocked off its foundation and floating down the river with its inhabitants calling out for help.

Already reeling from the shock of seeking my birth-home town flooded, the news went further to say that water was headed downstream to Ipswich and Brisbane, the Australian towns of my adulthood. Yesterday's news was full of predictions as to how high the river would get and warning for those at risk to get out. 

Yesterday it was hard to pull myself away from the internet - viewing amazing scenes from Monday's flash flood and wondering how bad the future was for Brisbane/Ipswich.

This morning we awoke to find that rivers had broken their banks. The beautiful city where we've spent our adult lives (when in Australia) was being infiltrated by dirty brown river water.  I found a picture of the suburb we lived in last year. Most of the shopping centre, the railway station, the swimming pool, the banks and restaurants were under water. Only the tip of McDonald's roof could be seen.

Thankfully I had a meeting at school that took me out of the house and distracted me. When I returned home at 11 I grabbed a coffee, quickly checked for an update on the floods and headed out the door for retail therapy. Well, actually I had a list of things I needed to get, headed by cross-stitch threads. And it served to get me out of the house again and away from the internet for a few hours.

Someone wrote as their Facebook status:

I can't stop watching the tv, can't sleep, can't concentrate and can't believe what I'm seeing!!!

I know how they feel. It is a terrible thing. Funny how I've seen heaps of flood footage over the last three weeks, of other places in Queensland. Some of them were places I've travelled through. But this week - seeing the part Australia that I am most familiar with be inundated with water has thrown me. I cannot imagine how traumatised people who've lost everything feel, nor how it feels for those who've stood by and watched the place they've lived their whole lives be submerged by water that belongs in a river bed, not a house. 

I can only pray. Pray for God's mercy. And pray that people who've seen their lives washed away in front of them see how futile it all is. How futile it is to trust in riches, when mere water can wash it all away. Pray they'll trust instead in the One who never changes, who always was and always will be.