You can never have enough...

[JanW]

Good morning - wow it’s been a rough couple of days — in saying that where I am in the inner city we have had no damage at all - even the creek behind us flowed straight out to sea as the council had recently cleared the weed This is far worse than Bola .My sister and I were FaceTiming with my brother telling him to get out because the sea was so high - she lives semi rural on a vineyard in a beautiful 100 year old cottage - she finished the conversation saying she was going to let her pet sheep into the vineyard as they would get shelter from the vines - ten minutes later she sent a text she was being evacuated and her house had gone under - then silence for 3 days - just yesterday the army managed to get in and rescue them - her daughter and five others and her two monstrous dogs had been rescued by a teenager on a boat and taken to the local Marae which was a bit higher so they were able to get into the second story of a bunk house - when the rain subsided my niece took the boat and went back to their houses - her bottom story was full of silt but everything in the top story was safe - my sisters house car and her beautiful garden - a truly spectacular garden she had lots of plants from Mums garden and my elderly aunties - but yesterday the army took them back to see if they could retrieve anything but they were too late the looters had already been and had taken everything from my nieces top story that was worth taking .The looting has been unbelievable - even the houses in the Esk Valley have been looted - there are simply not enough police here but I hear this morning finally more are coming .There are so many people missing the police are just overwhelmed .The death toll will rise - a young couple we know very well - had a house in the Esk Valley it was built like the houses in Queensland up on stilts because it is a flood plain - they got up in the ceiling and should have been safe but a container slammed into the house - they were swept away he was pulled out of the water by a man with a tractor but unfortunately she hasn’t been seen .Heartbreaking posts on social media people searching for their dogs hoping they have miraculously made it to high ground .The orchards and the cropping ground - orchards that are third generation completely wiped out - one of Robies school friends third generation running the orchard was completely inundated except for his machinery shed - he did helicopter weed spraying so he got his chopper out and headed up the Esk valley rescuing people on the skid - while he was doing that the looters hit his property and cleaned him out .But there were so many people doing incredible things to help people - people went to extraordinary lengths to save people .
Venetian hope you are OK and have your power back on - ours came on 5pm yesterday - my neighbour has been fantastic she realised Robie was swamped at the supermarket so she brought me a lovely cooked meal every night - she is on gas - she was up and down the street with her thermos in the mornings with tea