How are the people coping with the flood in Australia?

Answer 1

As one would expect, the floods are devastating. People have lost family members, pets, property and their very livelihood. Farmers and business owners, in particular, face heartbreak of losses that they can never recoup. Flood insurance is very expensive for people who live anywhere near the river, so many of these people are not insured. There is nothing for them to do but rebuild from scratch. It has been especially hard when people have seen others swept away, or gone to assist in saving people, and seen young children swept away by the floodwaters. There is a great deal of grief.

Above all, though, Australians are remarkable and resilient people. People are helping total strangers evacuate homes and offices. At the RSPCA refuge, people came along as they were being evacuated themselves, and took animals to foster. They have lost everything, but they are still willing to give more of themselves. Within the areas of devastation, people who are luckier and have avoided floods in their own homes have helped fill sandbags, volunteered their time at the evacuation centres or opened their homes to people who need a place to stay. Again and again, stories are surfacing of people who have not escaped unscathed, but who have still offered their help to people worse off than themselves. There is an Australian ethos of just getting in and helping neighbours, no matter what, and this has really shone through in this difficult time. Naturally, the police and emergency services personnel have just worked tirelessly.

In each community, once the rivers and floodwaters have peaked, people have immediately started to rally, looking ahead to the need to clean up. There was no complaining - just people getting in and starting to clean up, because they knew it had to be done. And, as always, there were total strangers getting in and helping clean up. Brisbane dubbed Saturday 15 January as "Salvation Saturday". On this day, thousands and thousands of volunteers turned up at registration centres around the city with any cleaning equipment they had, queuing for long periods of time, awaiting their instructions and ready to be bussed to suburbs where help was needed.

Similarly, people in the southern states worked together to pull through the floods. While the southern states did not experience the devastation of a deadly flash flood, they have had to cope with inundation and the resultant cleanup. Many of these people have considered themselves lucky compared to Queensland - there is little self-pity, but plenty of compassion for those in a worse situation.