Our Disastrous Floods
Disastrous floods in Queensland and Northern NSW as well as those communities in the Murray Darling basin have alarmed us all. The loss of life and livelihood, of stock and agriculture, of house and farm, of community infrastructure demand the best from all of us. The recovery stage now requires a co-coordinated response to the worst floods in the history of European settlement. Stories of heroism, of stoic resilience and the generosity of volunteers and donors have moved us all.
After ten years of dreadful drought, rural and parts of urban Australia has areas now larger than most of Europe deep under water. Hundreds of thousands of people have been evacuated from their homes and have lost their all. Billions of dollars will be required to re-instate what was there only a few weeks ago.
For several months I had planned a trip throughout the NSW Northern Rivers area to speak at Churches and community meetings about recent legislation. This week I cancelled the trip as inappropriate for local friends in flood areas and as an inadequate response from myself.
I have always been conscious of not only saying the right word in time of disaster, but doing with all my might the right deeds of helpfulness. For nearly three decades I had overseen a disaster response coordinating team among my staff. Within an hour we would have everything in place to go to people experiencing cyclone, floods, bushfires and snow avalanches. We were always trained and prepared.
For example, each disaster saw us provide enough clothing for every person who made a request, with additional clothing going to every Shire for distribution. We provided blankets, bed linen and white goods to replace those damaged by flood waters. We supplied semi-trailer loads of new refrigerators, washing machines, stoves and hundreds of food hampers of tinned goods and money to buy locally, fresh milk, meat, bread and the like to help their economy get going again.
I set up a flying trauma team to go to support families who can take no more, as we did with those traumatized at Threadbo. My staff gathered eight bus loads of volunteers to go up to spend a week at a time shoveling mud and strengthening fences without cost to the farmers. We had a Credit Counselling Help Line already open.
By using the resources of Wesley Mission, Sydney, we also offered respite care for aged people from the area so they could get out of the flood zone and allow their younger members of the family to get on with the business of cleaning up and provided longer term respite care for disabled children, teenagers and adults so their families could concentrate on the repair work. We organized free holiday camps for children to get them out of their parents’ hair.
Our trained LifeLine Disaster Counsellors were on hand twenty-four hours a day. And a flying team of family counsellors flew in wherever any community requested them for families under strain.
I wrote individual personal letters of encouragement to every family made known to us so that they realized there was another family who were praying and caring for them. We collected tinned food to make supplies available for people in each Shire and organized teams of volunteer carpenters and builders to help rebuild any uninsured property, church or community building. Finally, I was busy contacting all of my corporate supporters for donations of cash to people who have been badly impacted, and I distributed hundreds of thousands of dollars in local communities and to those who had lost their all. I will never forget the tears as people opened their cheques for ten thousand dollars each.
But I have now retired after fifty years of helping people in need and I do not have such resources at hand. I am thank to God there are good agencies who are continuing this work and doing so with even greater resources, and large numbers of volunteers who are working in the mud and water to help those most effected. I constantly pray for the whole situation and in particular for those families suffering greatly. We sent our donations immediately to Queensland’s Premier’s appeal.
I had planned several weeks ago to tour major cities in the Tweed, Clarence and Belligen Rivers areas to speak about recent legislation. But this week I cancelled the trip as inappropriate for local friends and as an inadequate response from myself. But to my surprise those organizing local meetings replied: “Do not cancel. We need you more now than ever. Bring us concern, some hope and the spiritual recourses we need.” So Beverley and I will set off this week north.
I replied to them, “As the Apostle wrote to the needy people in Rome, “I know that when I come to you, I will come in the full measure of the blessings of Christ.” (Romans 15:29).
The response to human need requires a diverse contribution. Your prayers and concern are deeply appreciated.
Rev. The Hon. Dr Gordon Moyes, AC MLC
Parliamentary Leader, FAMILY FIRST PARTY