Update

Well, huge orange tarps cover our roof and overall they are doing a wonderful job.  Mother Nature, however, is severely challenging Mals ability to be a good steward of the nice home God has blesses us with.  Every day is hot and humid and every afternoon more thunderstorms, wind, rain and in some places hail, so every morning Mal gets up and resets the tarps from where the wind has moved them to where the need to be.  Every evening storm leaves Mal pacing exclaiming that he can't believe the wind has moved the tarps again.  I am also amazed because the tarps are not only roped down but are actually bolted to the brick walls of the house.  But for the most part the tarps are doing what they should be doing.  UPDATE:  The SES have just come to check tarps after last night's wind and offered Mal a job with North Queensland  crew.  He will be chuffed.

In addition to all our goings and comings, our house has been a staging area for food and water distribution.  There has been, I don't know how many people or how much food go through our house into the community for families and workers.  

My washing machine only gets about 8 hours rest a day, the same as the rest of us.  

On Wed the storm that came through made Mal's daughter Sally a victim as well.  Her unit sits above the garage and is near a creek.  The storm washed all the debris down the creek to a bridge where it flooded and filled Sally's garages with nearly a meter of water and mud.  She lost much of the stuff she had stored in the garage.  Every storm brings more damage to more communities all around.  Flooding is happening all over the country.

The neighbourhoods are for the most part travel-able so on the outside things appear quite normal but I know that inside homes people are still reeling.  There is subtle damage.  Our neighbour and friend died suddenly on Wed.  He was elderly so you can't really say that it was storm damage but it leaves you wondering.  

Thank you everyone for your prayers and support.  We (our whole community) will soon be back on its feet because of your response.  

Red Cross

I was not ready for the Red Cross to knock on my door.  Mal and I are doers.  I can't think that I have ever received much of anything but prayers and comfort, maybe a meal at anytime.  But today the Red Cross came to help us.  Our roof only has Mal's plastic patches and more storms are on the way.  We have been offered tarps and financial assistance.  The same as all our neighbours have received.  And we took them up on the tarp offer.  It is a necessity.  I was impressed by the effort of a volunteer who explained how to identify bad stress and where to go for help.  There are 600 or so Army men helping out down our street.  There are volunteers from other states.  The Prime Minister has been here and declared it a National Disaster area and we are to receive federal aid at some stage.  Our house was a staging area for the church to provide lunch to volunteers.  It hadn't occurred that we are also part of the disaster.  Thank you all who support the Red Cross.  God Bless you.