God used a flood to create a real community part 2

(Following on from part 1)

We were all very tired from worrying, packing and lots of travelling. We desperately needed sleep. Even then I was really impressed how we care for one another, one sister Gail decided to sleep on the floor so that Christine and I could have our own room. Even though Oliver's house, oops, I meant mansion, is huge, we managed to fill every bedroom. Prior to sleeping everyone were glued to the television trying to find out what would happened next. The authorities predicted that the Brisbane would rise to 5.5 metres which would break the 1974 flood record. This is amazing because since 1974, a flood mitigation dam (Wivenhoe) was constructed to reduce flooding in the Brisbane river flood plain. The fact was that we had received a record breaking rain days before into the catchment. We also had rain in the Toowoomba area which led to inland tsunami that killed dozens of people. The rain that felt in the Toowoomba area did not fall into the Wivenhoe's catchment area. And finally there was the king tide! Wivenhoe was threatening to overflow and some water had to be released. This is why the water level continue to rise even though the rain had stopped. This fooled many people into believing that they were safe.

Given the circumstances, we had a really good night sleep. On the morning of the 13th, I woke up to bird noises. Stretton didn't have as many bird sounds as did St. Lucia. Well you always have your crows but there were other really nice sounding birds that I didn't hear before. Well you definitely don't need alarm clocks in Australia! Coming in from the front door, Oliver's house has a huge lounge. The first floor has a large openning from which we can see this huge lounge. From this indoor balconey, I could see Mr and Mrs Au (Gavin's parents) practiced their Tai Chi. They were very graceful. It is amazing to see Mrs Au, she is very flexible and she is in her 60s! We couldn't see a single of part of Oliver's kitchen's bench because it was covered with food. We had food that we hurriedly packed and then food that Jenny had brought us from the night before. Breakfast was certainly not a simple affair, definitely not what I would normally have. And we are escaping a flood :-) ? Thinking back, this reminded me of verse 5 of Psalm 23 (my cup overflows ... our kitchen bench overflows??).

Even though we had so much food, we do have 12 people and so it was off to the nearby shopping centre. In spite of the television pictures, a large part of Brisbane was not directly affected by the flood. However, everyone were indirectly affected (and still is at the time of writing) because many of flooded areas are argiculture areas from which we source our meat, cereal and vegetables. The flooded roads also meant trucks carrying food stuff could not get through. To make matters even worse, the main food distribution centre, Rocklea, was also flooded. Having said that there were still a lot of food in the shops but fresh vegetables were not as plentiful as per usual. Some panic buying of food and vegetables did occur.

As I was still on call, I tried connecting my laptop to the work but even here the flood was having its impact. The telecommunication system was also affected as some telephone exchanges and mobile phone towers were also located in flooded areas.

Of the five family groups that were seeking refuge at Oliver's house, three of them have some flooding in their homes. Christine and I knew our homes were OK (except Christine and I had some concern about looting). Gail was concerned because the units on the other side of her street were starting to flood. It is amazing how different people react differently to news. My youngest sister Miriam has a friend whose was flooded in Warren St which is parallel to Durham St. Miriam automatically assumed that my father's unit would be flooded in Durham St. In spite of my assurance, my father called from Hong Kong to get me to return to check on his unit. Somehow the word "danger" just did not register in the minds of my extended family. The roads are closed and many did not having working traffic signals because of the lost of electricity. One man was sucked in the storm water drain precisely because he wanted to inspect his flooded home. It is interesting how different people reacted to crisis. On the one hand, those of us whose homes were mostly safe and those of us whose homes were already flooded or in danger of being flooded. As far as I can tell there was no panic or massive anxiety attack in our refuge. Yet my father, whose unit was still safe, continued to panic. As a Christian community I believe we had experienced the faithfulness of our heavenly Father. I am sure this was the best preparation one can ever have. Thinking back this reminded me of the hymn "Be Still, My Soul". Here's the first verse:

Be still, my soul:
the Lord is on thy side.
Bear patiently
the cross of grief or pain.
Leave to thy God
to order and provide;
In every change,
He faithful will remain.
Be still, my soul:
thy best, thy heavenly Friend
Through thorny ways
leads to a joyful end.

The authorities predicted that the Brisbane river would peak twice (during high tides). It peaked on the morning of the 13th and the afternoon of the 13th. The morning peak of the 13th only reached 4.46 Metres and not the predicted 5.5 Metres. Thank God, because that 1 Metre made a huge difference to what houses would be affected. I have other friends whose first floor was within two steps of being flooded. I was quietly confident (well not so quiet when I was trying to calm my father) that my father's unit was going to be OK. I called my pastor, Andrew Teo in Toowong and he was OK and even have electricity. However the church was closed by floods on three sides. As the water started to recede on the 14th (Friday), Andrew asked everyone to either come to church's prayer meeting or try to have a meeting at our place. On the evening of the 14th, Alvin (Alvin is himself a pastor at Sunnybank Baptists) and Cherry helped us organised a prayer meeting. We even sang my favourite "What the Lord Has Done in me". Verse 3 was very interesting given our circumstances:

I will rise from waters deep
Into the saving arms of God.
I will sing salvation songs;
Jesus Christ has set me free.

We really felt the presence of the Holy Spirit. Everyone was moved and I even prayed well in Cantonese! To top it off, Jenny brought us some really yummy Chinese dessert.

By the afternoon of the 14th the power was already back for our unit but a large part of St Lucia still had no power. Christine and I decided to stay one more night and return on the morning for the 15th.

On the morning of the 15th, Mrs Au had made some really yummy congee (rice porridge) for breakfast. Oliver was sad to see us leave. Actually we ourselves felt sad as the three days of forced evaculation were an amazing time of fellowship. I got know to the Au family quite well. Poor Gavin, even though the water has receded and he could get back to his unit, the lower floor flooding meant the unit was unlivable (they had lost what was flooded on the lower floor). Gavin now has to find a new unit to rent and house his sister and parents. There was also uncertainity for Gail, Alvin and March as they don't know whether they will have electricity in St Lucia. Furthermore the water was still rising when we left on the 12th.

Alvin decided to stay behind has he has to give a sermon on the 16th. I then led March and Gail back to St Lucia. We say goodbye to the Au family as their unit was in not in St Lucia. The travel back to St Lucia (heading North from Stretton) was good but the traffic became very heavy as we closed in on St Lucia. I took a longer way so as to bypass the massive traffic jam (some roads were still closed). We stopped by Gail's place and saw an Energex truck but sadly the Energex's crew said that the areas around Gail's place still had no electricity. March and Sophfina went to check their unit while Christine and I headed back home. Later Gail rang to say her power was back. After sorting out our things, I had a bit of time left and so I went down to help the local stores at the end of our street. There was literally an army of volunteers cleaning up. Some other locals were helping the Chinese grocery store to salvage some non-perishables. I got my shovel out to clean a driveway under a small shopping complex. The shovel also came in handy when removing ice cream containers out of freezers. All the ice cream and ice blocks have melted. It really stink! With the help of a completely unknown stranger, we lifted the freezer side way and poured out the watery content. We had to do it, it was mozzies breeder!. There was also mud to shovel from people's gardens. Sir Fred Schonell Drive look like war zone. Rubbish are piled up on the footpath but at least the road was passable with much effort from volunteers, the SES and the army. Shall write some more later... If you reading this please pray for the recovery. But with all this mess, I knew our city has changed. As Master Card would say:

"a bridge cost millions, a tunnel costed billions but a new community spirit ...priceless"

I remembered just as Christine, Sophfina, March and I left the house we prayed and I ask God why the flood....Now I know, out of the flooded water is a new community and may be even revival!

God used a flood to create a real community part 1

On the 11th of January, it was raining cats and dogs. We were told to get ready to move the Energex's control centre from Newstead to Victoria Park. Victoria Park is our old control centre. All the old workstations were there but needed to be loaded to get them ready to take over control of South East Queensland electricity network if we needed to evacuate Newstead due to rising Brisbane river. We arrived at the old control centre late in the morning and started gettng the workstations ready. Not long after that other control centre staff started arriving, it seems the evacuation order had already been given - we weren't told! We only got the news from project staff who had remained at the old control centre. One of our manager called me to send our other staff home. I stayed because I was on standby until Thursday morning. Only one member of our team stayed in Newstead to keep an eye on things while we transition from Newstead to Victoria Park. At least one staff had to stay home that day as he thought his house was going to go under. Things were moving at a rapid pace. The seriousness of the situation was slowly dawning on me as one of the shift manager had to arrange for an emergency outage at a Geebung quarry. He was desperately trying not to have to shut down a large area. By evening more control centre staff have moved over and huge wallboard diagrams were being shifted. I helped set up the these diagrams and didn't leave till 10:30pm. By that stage I decided not drive home the normal way. Instead I went via Latrobe Terrace which is way back from anywhere near the river. Previous to this I had already started looking at flood maps and realised that the lower part of my father's street and my street (Mitre St) will be affected. At that stage I was still thinking no way that the water will reach my parents' place. When I got near home I drove down my dad's street and saw water has already risen up from Sir Fred Schonell Drive. All was dark and I knew that part of Sir Fred Schonell Drive was already flooded, I didn't bother trying to find out by how much as I had been working since 7am that morning.

That night, Christine told me that our friend March and his wife had not yet evacuate their home which is even closer to the river. Given the predict rise in water level we tried to convince them. Anyway I was too tired to worry and so went to bed.

Morning of the 12th, the rain had stopped. Christine and I went to have a look at dad's street. The telephone booth closest to Sir Fred Schonell drive was already half way under water. Some SES volunteers were using a boat to transfer people out of already-flooded houses. We called March again about getting out. We even looked around the University of Queensland to see whether they could escape to our place without getting their stuck in flooded streets. One of the service road already had at least two metres of water. We rang March to urge them to call the SES (State Emergency Service). Returning back to dad's street around midday we saw the flood water had covered all the glass area of the telephone booth. The neighbour just below my dad's unit said that the rising tide will make the flooding a lot worse. Later in the afternoon we were pleasantly surprised to hear that March and his wife had driven out of the flooded area and ask for the name of our street (March had forgotten our street name). March had a miraculous escape. After warnings from several friends, March had moved his car to higher grounds within UQ. The miracle was that they met another car which knew how to drive out of the flooded areas in UQ. Previous to this, March had thought that they were trapped within UQ. March gave me a hand to take some of dad's belongings to the second floor as one tenant had already empty their ground floor in preparation for the flood water. On the way home we dropped by Philip's place and heard that tap water may be cut-off. We got home thinking things were still OK until the fan stopped turning when we lost electricity. We should have predicted this as an Energex truck had rolled past our street. They must have stopped power because of an emergency outage nearby. With no power and possibly no tap water, it was time to get out.

The night earlier we had heard that Alvin, Cherry and Gail had already left for a place in Taringa. However both Gail's home and parts of Taringa were also threatened. Alvin and Cherry had a flooded basement and were worried that it will start threatening their ground floor unit. We found out that Alvin, Cherry and Gail had started to leave St Lucia and headed south to Stretton where Oliver lived. Oliver had emailed everyone in our fellowship group (Salt and Light) to see if anyone needed temporary accomodation. Another brother Gavin Au, had to leave their flooded home in Sherwood and his entire family were making their way also to Oliver's place. Christine, March and I also came to the same conclusion as we thought we could not possibly stay with no water and electricity. While we frantically packed, we also tried to work out what route to take. Coronation Drive and Milton Road (to the East) were closed and then Cherry called to say that they were coming back as Oxley Road (to the South and West) were also closed. It look as if we were stuck ... trapped ...

Late that afternoon all of us met at the Taringa Five-way. We figured that the only way is to go via Paddington and down towards the Storey bridge. However, I was the only one familiar with that direction. We had four cars between us and I took the lead as we headed towards the higher parts of Taringa. We weaved our way through to Toowong and then onto Fredrick St. From Fredrick St, we headed towards Latrobe Terrace. We briefly lost Alvin but we got the four cars together again and headed to Caxton street. Along the way, I took the wrong turn and ended up in Given Terrace, even there the flood was not far away as we quickly u-turned and headed back towards Caxton street. Eventually we made it down to Wickham street and onto the Storey bridge. Safe at last but not without having to run the gauntlet of sightseers hanging around Kangaroo Point to see the now absolutely swollen river. Afterwards both March and I thought we are all trying to escape and you people are sightseeing? After a long drive (how I appreciate Coronation Drive!), we made it to Oliver's place. Gavin's family was already there. Oliver helped us to find rooms in his mansion so that we could all have a good night rest. On top of that Jenny arrived later to bring us roast chicken, bread and other food. God is good! We were so glad we didn't have to go to the emergency evacuation centre. I am sure the evacuation centre would have been good but there is nothing like being amongst friends in the midst of an emergency! This is so long but it was memorable. I had never have to leave home like this.... Please read on ...