Australia Day... one to remember

So for those of you who don't know, Australia Day is January 26th. It's the day Australia became a colony and it's celebrated much like 4th of July in the US, just without fireworks.

Another big part of the day is this radio station here called Triple J plays their "Hottest 100" countdown playing the top 100 songs of the year that were voted by listeners. It's a lot of good new music and it's a pretty indie/alternative station. It's a really massive deal here and everyone can vote on the songs online and then they have the countdown on Australia day. The Bundy crew always has a big Australia Day party and then people all vote at the party for the top 10 songs.

It's the middle of summer here, so we all thought it'd be a great idea to rent Dan's Grandad's beach house down at Bargara for Australia Day and get a large group of people up there for a big party. So that's been the plan for a long time and all the Bundy crew plus around 10 of us from Brisbane/Gold Coast were driving up for it.

A few days before the weekend, we all looked at the weather and saw it was going to rain. We were all bummed but hoped it would still move out of the weather system.

However, on Friday as we all started to drive up, we were getting constant updates from our dear friend Dee who works for Queensland Roads to see if any roads were closed because it was raining that bad. We drove in non-stop pouring down wind and rain until we finally made it to the beach, and we were all just happy to be there.

Come Saturday morning- the rain is still coming down in sheets and there was so much wind and no real sign of it stopping. There was another storm just 2 hours north that was making it's way down to us.

It rained so much that many people (including Judy and Shane) weren't able to make it to the beach for the day because the roads were flooded, and then the tornados started...

I'm pretty sure there has never been one tornado in that area, and that day there were 3. Luckily, where we were wasn't affected but very close by roofs were flying off, cars were turning upside down, etc.

We were all safe at the house, it was very wet, but we all still had a really good time.

Then came Sunday morning... and guess what- it was still raining. Our biggest concern became all of us getting back into Bundaberg (only 15 minute drive away) so that we didn't get stranded on the beach. Some of the group tried several times but each time found water too high to cross in normal cars. (Monday was a public holiday, so we were hoping to get into Bundaberg sometime Sunday so we could then get home on Monday).

A little later in the morning a group of us were able to drive through some of the water and make it back into Bundaberg. We were very releived to be out of the beach and thought the worst was over.

We were wrong.

Turns out the water from the beach quickly moved out and the sun came up, but we all had moved from the house and into Bundaberg, where the river that runs through the town water was rising rapidly.

To cut this short- there was a MASSIVE flood 2 years ago in Dec 2010/Jan 11 that really did damage to the town, and this one was expected to be worse. The waters in the river just kept rising and the river was moving so fast. The river broke its banks and moved into North Bundaberg quickly flooding all the houses and businesses around it. At first it was expected to flood 300 homes, and it turned into 2,000. People were being evacuated by helicopter from standing on their roof because that was the only way out.

Towns to the south were starting to flood as well, and we all knew there was no way we were making it back to work Tuesday (which also happened to be the first day of school/work for Dan and many of the others that had driven up).

Judy and Shane's house was fine and most all the other people we know in Bundy were fine. Gaz and Mel's house was in danger for a few days, but the water got up their driveway but didn't make it into their home. They had never seen water in places the water was.

It was unreal.

Tuesday, since we were unable to drive down, we decided to go down and help out. The boys helped carry stretchers of elderly people coming out of the helicopters that had been evacuated. It was about 100 degrees that day, so my job was to carry an umbrella and shade the people while they were on teh stretchers or in wheel chairs. Helping out and seeing the victims made it very real.

I'll put some photos and a video from the news below, but basically all of North Bundaberg was completely flooded and now in 2 feet of mud. It will take a while for the town to rebuild and let's just hope another flood isn't just 2 years away.

 To the left of this photo is a massive mall that has an underground parking lot that was completely filled with water. Behind me is Judy's office that we helped clear everything out in case the water came in. Luckily it didn't, but the shopping center will take a while to come good again.

 To the right of this photo is the old bridge that connects South Bundaberg to North Bundaberg. The river is normally around 30 feet below the bridge, and as you can see in this photo it's almost to the bridge. In the following days the river completely goes over the bridge, only able to cross by boat.

 This is an aerial view of Bundy looking South to North. The large white buildings on the bottom left is the shopping center I was talking about in the photo before. Judy's work is just left of those orange roof buildings. As you can see the river runs through the town and it's hard to see the line of the river with all the flooding.

Here's another aerial view of mainly North Bundaberg. The old bridge is near the bottom and North Bundy is on the left of the photo. Photo pretty much speaks for itself.

Here's a link of a video from 9 News that shows more of the flood and rescue efforts. (Also, I have a quick cameo at the end in this video carrying an umbrella.)

http://ninem.sn/0wt4XPb

As the water is now receeding, here's a link of a video of the aftermath

http://ninem.sn/M248fdI

Please keep Bundaberg in your prayers as it's been an unreal time for all of them.

Well hopefully the next post will be more uplifting and more often :)