Floods have hit Australians hard

Say what you mean and act how you feel, because those who matter don't mind and those who mind don't matter.~ Dr Seuss

I've mentioned briefly in previous posts about the floods in Queensland and how they will impact Riverland towns such as Renmark with the flows expected to hit the Murray River by the end of this month.

The first image in this post is of one town among many in Northern Queensland where hundreds of people have been evacuated, homes have been lost and up to 10 people have died in some of the worst flooding in years. Rivers have yet to peak in some towns with levels expected to reach 9.4 metres in some places (that's a shite load of water) The second image is of the rooftops of houses, keeping in mind that water levels are yet to peak.

Australia seems to be in the grip of some extreme weather patterns of late. Summer has only just arrived in South Australia in the last week or so, meaning November and December were very cool with large amounts of unseasonal rain. We've gone from extremes of drought throughout the country to flooding of immense proportions in a short space of a few weeks.

Mum and Dad are taking out flood insurance this week to ensure their home is protected and lets face it, Renmark will be nowhere near as badly hit as towns in the north eastern states. My heart goes out to the hundreds of families further north who have lost everything. The pitiful amount of money that the Australian government has donated to the disaster relief fund is laughable.

You can't even begin to fathom the heartache and work involved in the clean up effort, or the number of months that it will take for these towns to be back to normal. Every Australian will be affected in some way with stories that fruit and vegie prices are set to sky rocket and commodities will be affected also.

In the course of writing this blog I had a blonde moment and could not remember the difference between affect and effect, stupid I know because it should be simple, but I just couldn't think. I think I got it right but I'm sure one of you will let me know if I got it wrong.

Mother Nature is a curious beast and I feel guilty sitting in my nice dry home with my belongings around me and my family safe and secure. There are stories to be found of triumph and survival amongst all of this chaos. What about you, have you felt the full force of mother nature?

Would love to hear your thoughts

Cheers, Fi