Since my last post I have completed a short (flood relief) sojourn to Spencer and Long Jetty.
Spencer is on the Hawkesbury River, not far from Sydney, but at the bottom of a steep gully it feels like a frontier town. People there arrived at the recovery centre by boat and gave me their land line phone numbers. Reliable mobile reception has only been available to them for two years. It was like another world.
Long Jetty is a pretty coastal suburb north of Sydney. I find it hard to believe the poverty there, given the proximity to beautiful and expensive real estate. One young woman and her children had been displaced by flood from a converted garage. I am very proud to say that I referred her for emergency accommodation and she moved into a hotel that same day. Hotel accommodation will not be helpful to her food budget and I wish that was different but she was in a space she could call her own, out of the disruptive influence of the home where she was couch surfing.
I was home for a few days and getting ready to return to Northern Rivers when they were hit by the second flood event in a month. The house I was scheduled to stay in was flooded and roads impassable so I have been sent to Brisbane instead.
Brisbane has also suffered extreme flooding but is not receiving huge amounts of attention because it was less devastating than what happened in the Northern Rivers area.
On the home front, Harry doesn't like rain and doesn't like me being away so there is a lot of indoor peeing happening. If he wasn't so cute, I'd wring his neck.
Today I saw just 6 flood victims in a recovery centre which closed today. Hopefully the locals have all accessed the grants available to them.
Tomorrow I join a new team and head out of Brisbane to Ipswich, another place wracked by disadvantage.
The owner of the hotel I'm in tells me he thinks there are at least 40 volunteers staying here....and thats just one hotel, accommodating one organisation.
There is no doubt that these events are producing climate refugees and costing billions of dollars through insurance, the charity sector, people's volunteered time etc etc. I am proud of the legions who help through whatever means they can but I wonder what could have been achieved if all of this energy and money had been put into something else.
If climate had been treated as a serious issue 30 or 20 years ago, if the planet wasn't warming at such a rate, we could be investing these resources into finding child sex offenders, paying teachers more, early intervention programs for at-risk children or treating our institutionalised elderly with meaningful care.
I miss you all and read your blogs in spare moments.
Take care!
Kylie
You are so right about paying attention to warnings given earlier. I had never heard the phrase "climate refugees." It certainly aptly describes all the displaced from fires, floods, and other weather caused events.
ReplyDeleteI first heard of climate refugees as people who would need to leave low lying islands such as Vanuatu and The Maldives.
DeleteI didn't imagine it would happen to people on large continents
Thank you so much. And all the other people with boots on the ground. Yet again Lifeline's phone lines are crowded. Two of himself's nephew's homes in Brisbane were flooded. And I gather that after the floods the houses are shrouded in mould. Which adds new health risks for hundreds of people whose homes are still (sort of) liveable.
ReplyDeletePoor Harry, poor you. And thank you again.
One of the first things I saw in a recovery centre was information about mould. It's a big problem.
DeleteI hope your family were able to access help. It's a lot to deal with
Thank you Kylie for being able to ‘take off’ at short notice and for having the skills to be able to help. Our media is concentrating on ‘other things’ at the moment- it’s sort of like ‘here today- gone tomorrow’ unfortunately like bushfire relief, flood relief doesn’t stop when print deadlines come round.
ReplyDeleteI do it for the selfish reasons of loving to meet people 😊
DeleteThe short news cycle means many deserving issues are never covered. It's a curse
You've got it right about climate change. we're at a point of no return. From now on it's going to hurt and cost lots of money.
ReplyDeleteMoney that could have been used to improve things rather than simply make poor attempts at repairing damaged lives and homes
DeleteYou are doing wonderful work among difficult conditions. I salute you.
ReplyDeleteI really just love it but thank you
DeleteWell done for helping out, kylie. I agree, as a planet we are woefully mis-using our resources and our knowledge. How much better we could do if we could work as one. However, we must work with what we've got, and that's what you are doing.
ReplyDeleteSo who is holding down the fort with Harry? I feel for both of you!
Three of my children and Lucy the Supermutt live with me so Harry is well cared for even if he's unimpressed. He's a sensitive soul 😊
DeleteI am proud to know you Kylie and proud of what you are doing. Keep up the good work ma'am!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Neil. Unemployment has given me the freedom to do it
DeleteGood on you for doing this work Kylie and I agree - this could have been avoided but our governments have failed us. And our electorates too - we can't forget that the constituents of democracies choose self interest over compassion. This must be tough work. Take care of yourself and I worry for Harry.
ReplyDeleteYou're right about electorates choosing self interest. What people don't understand is that it will, eventually, be a problem to us all. It is now.
DeleteI'm so angry about climate.
This work can be hard but we don't see huge numbers of very distressed people. They tend to hold themselves together in order to be functional while they deal with us. Distress and exhaustion is on faces but we don't often see it expressed in any other way.
Harry is a bit of a diva!
"If climate had been treated as a serious issue 30 or 20 years ago, if the planet wasn't warming at such a rate, we could be investing these resources into finding child sex offenders, paying teachers more, early intervention programs for at-risk children or treating our institutionalised elderly with meaningful care." Amen to that.
ReplyDeletePoor Harry, finding it hard to adjust. Will he get used to you being away, do you think?
Hi Nick,
DeleteI'm home now and I thinkI have finished my last deployment so Harry can relax. The consistent rain is a big problem, he just doesn't want to go outside and is quite stubborn