The Flood Was Extraordinary. So Was Australians’ Response.

I am so proud to call Townsville home. Seeing how the community as a whole have come togather to help us all. It’s truely amazing. So many people have been willing to help in any way, even if it’s as simple as supplying a home cooked meal. We’ve a long way to go, but Townsville will recover. As long as we stick together and help a mate out. From this disaster onwards a stronger community has formed.

Australians always come together in times of adversity. Governments have well developed emergency support programs, that are quickly brought into play. Australia suffers from droughts and flooding rain as penned by Dorothea Mackellar in her 1908 prose, My Country. We have lots of lovely weather, but also have dry times, wet times, along with bushfires and cyclones (extreme low pressure systems). Townsville has flooded less in the last part of the 20th century and first part of the 21st century than in the recorded history before then. Records mostly began in the late 19th century, despite tens of thousands of years of occupation of this huge island continent. It flooded in 1891, 1892, 1946 and 1953. If it didn't flood, it would be unusual. Townsville is in far north Queensland, where cyclones are a reality and an accepted part of life. They also bring great dumps of rain relied on especially to the west of the Great Dividing Ranges which run most of the way up and parallel to the east coast of Australia. These dumps of rain fill the large river systems of inland and southern Australia. In recent times there have been less cyclones, causing more drought. Townsville is only one major city affected by this significant monsoon event. It's the effects on farms in north and north western Queensland that's just as difficult, partly because the area affected is so huge. But rain eventually brings rewards. Assistance can be given through: www.qcwa.org.au/financial-help/

Disasters of fire, flooding, drought, disease, earthquakes and tsunamis are just a few of the natural things that are bringing the people in the locales affected together: those that survive. We are seeing more and more disasters, on larger scales, than ever before, and perhaps it is time to turn a good section of our Military towards specific, speedy disaster relief and then ongoing rebuilding and increased health care, both physical and mental. We would get a Lot more 'bang for the buck' compared to buying and using weapons. Rescuing people and getting to be known for extreme humanitarianism, rather than extreme protection of it's money making, nation-raping corporations, would give the USA a much better image again. The Corporations and politicians bought by them have done great damage to America's image overseas. Trump is the epitome of the Stupid American who stumbles, bumbles, destroys extremely precious, irreplaceable items and then when confronted thinks that a few dollars should fix what was broken, not knowing he has destroyed the crown jewels. But most people, when dealing with mass disaster, will work with each other to right the problems: That is civilization. Those that flock to the area to loot are feral opportunivores who know no better in their lack of being civilized, being feral, not properly taught Domestic Duties and Responsibilities and how that feeds back to those others You help helping you later. Too many of our political class are feral humans!

Australians have a social conscience that is remarkable. My late parents were victims of the 2003 Canberra bushfires, in which over 500 homes were completely destroyed. They lost their home and all their belongings, except the clothes they were wearing. The way the city came together to support the fire victims, in small ways and large, was heartwarming. My mother went into a store to buy bed linen, and the salesgirl cam around the counter and gave my mother a hug, when she realized she was a fire victim. Insurance companies went out of their way to make sure victims were properly compensated, the government kept a watchful eye to make sure vulnerable people were not taken advantage of etc. etc. From what I read, the experience of the Katrina victims in in New Orleans a few years later was starkly different.

Neighborliness in action, the duties of rescue and reconstruction well understood. Who said that the human spirit is AWOL? The moral of the story is that we afre social animals that must trust each other to do what's right, a reciprocal trust in knowing our strength in numbers, and our communitarian values.