Brisbane's storm

After spending a long time living in the Top End, and dealing with big storms as a part of life, the storm last night in Brisbane was a bit of an eye opener. Not so much because of the ferocity of the storm, it was not any worse than scores we went through in Darwin, but because of the damage it caused. The North-West of Brisbane was flattened. Trees litter the roadways, and power lines are draped in tangled piles where they fell. Roads are closed. Power has been cut to tens of thousands. Roofs and whole houses are destroyed, and cars sit flattened under the shattered trunks of gum trees. I’ve seen cyclones in the Top End do less damage. I guess all the trees that were going to blow over in Darwin in a storm, already have.

To whom does a city in need turn when things are grim? Initially to the stalwart volunteers of the SES and other groups who battled through the night to clear major thoroughfares and provide aid the most urgent cases. They did a fantastic job. The extent of the damage and the amount they had achieved overnight was impressive. When the cold light of day revealed the trail of destruction wrought by the storm, it was to the “gunhedz” as described by Bryla at Blair’s, the Brisbane City Council turned to for help. The North-West is an area that Defence Housing Australia has heavily invested in, which means that the area hardest hit was an area that many of the soldiers who were tasked with responding to the request live. They have families at home dealing with the damage from the storm, but they were, and still are, out in the rain conducting clean-up and repair. Their families are still at home, without power and now without clean water. The argument could be made that because they live in the area, they are acting in their own self-interest. This would be a very shallow analysis. They are tasked according to priorities set by the SES and Brisbane City Council. Whilst other families were stocking up on the provisions required to carry on without electricity for an unknown period, and cleaning up and setting their own homes in order, the soldiers were out clearing trees and debris, and conducting repairs to the most badly damaged homes. I, like most people, would have put family as a higher priority than community in the initial post-disaster effort.

Power to the Sharpe residence has only now been restored, some 28 hours after it went out. Many still don’t have electricity. Energex, the successor to SEQEB, warns that some homes may be without power for up to three days. We were fully anticipating that would be the case. All preparations for a protracted period of Third-worldliness made, it was almost with a sense of anti-climax that the lights flickered on and the fans began to rotate again. The eskies were full (of food and er...other essentials). A stockpile of candles had been procured and some lit. We were enjoying a game of Trivial Pursuit in the dim silence, when we were suddenly thrust back into the 21st Century. Despite some wistfulness, the next time Mrs Sharpe can boil a kettle for young Sharpe Jr’s breakfast instead of boiling a pot of water on the BBQ, she’ll be grateful for the modern wonder of electricity.