It’s hard to put into words the events of the past week and a bit.
And while we can say things like ‘we’ll bounce back’, we must also acknowledge that, yet again devastating floods will have a long-lasting impact on many people across our city.
As we start to turn to the clean-up and recovery, we still don’t know what the financial and long-term impact will be on our city. We can look at the numbers – houses inundated, communities isolated, families displaced, SES call outs but that doesn’t do justice to what we’ve experienced as a city. This is more than numbers, it’s about the people.
I’ve said it before and I will continue to say it – the people are what make our city great. And that has never been clearer than over the past 10 days.
We’ve seen people ferrying others back and forth over flood waters, taking food supplies to those isolated and now people helping others they don’t know clean-up and get back on their feet. Because if there is one thing that we do well in this great city, it’s helping those who are in need.
We are a resilient city and we’ve got through this before but a lot of people in our city are suffering. And right now it’s ok to be not ok but know there is support out there and it’s ok to ask for help.
So please, check on your neighbours, friends and families and if you need to speak to someone or need help a number of community recovery hubs have been established to provide face-to-face assistance and emotional support. They are located at Beenleigh PCYC, Beenleigh, Caddies Community Centre, Jimboomba and Kingston East Neighbourhood Centre, Kingston.
To all our emergency workers, SES, volunteers, council workers, our Logan Legends (our volunteer group) and so many more – thank you. We are so grateful for your tireless dedication to keeping our people safe and helping return our city.
Our thoughts are also with our fellow South East Queensland and northern New South Wales councils who have also experienced some of the worst floods ever seen. We stand side-by-side with them as we move forward with this recovery phase.
Take care and stay safe.
