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 ...