Driving home along a mud-caked road and seeing an entire household of belongings out on the nature strip. Clothing beside kitchenware and children's toys, all piled atop living room furniture plastered in the same smelly river muck, blending in with the flood-stained suburban sidewalk. An unnecessary reminder that my newfound water views are ugliest thing I have seen.
Oh, Bundaberg. You did not fare so well under your most recent attack of the Burnett River. Honestly, who saw this coming?
It was something like living in a war zone. As I sat high and dry at the top of town - still with electricity, still safe and sound in my own home - I watched the news of disaster unfolding around me, endless water spilling over land below me, and black hawk helicopters cutting paths above me. It was almost surreal if it weren't for good friends, people I personally know having their lives torn apart by this evil course of nature. Everyday folk, left with nothing.
That said, I cannot help but contemplate how this could have been so tragically different. For if this was not a developed nation, entire suburbs could have (would have) drowned. People's material lives are in ruins, but for the most part mortality has been spared.
My thoughts are with those who were affected by this flood. And with those who have ever suffered at the cruel hands of natural disaster. Our beautiful, unstoppable planet.
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