GRANTHAM, Australia — For Allan Marshall, this tiny Australian town has always been a tightly knit place, never more so than in days since a surging, flotsam-filled torrent hit the town, smashing apart homes and sweeping neighbors to their deaths.
A few buildings on highland remain, including the school where many locals now stay. Below, those homes not entirely destroyed were blasted sideways by the deluge, which began on Monday and has filled the town with the reek of river mud. In the fields, scores of crumpled cars, farm equipment, shipping containers and a boat were strewn over kilometers of sodden ground.
Mr. Marshall’s elderly father was drowned at home in the flood — a force akin to “a roaring thunder” — but he said he still considers himself lucky.
“The difference is with me, I’ve lost me father, they’ve recovered him and I’m able to have closure,” he said. “There’s a lot of people that still hasn’t got closure yet and may not have closure for another three or four, five days.”
As waters receded across much of the flood-ravaged northeastern state of Queensland on Friday, people began to count the cost and tentatively rebuild from one of Australia’s worst natural disasters. Floods since late last year across a region more than twice the size of California have inundated tens thousands of homes and businesses and caused billions of dollars in damage and economic loss.
In the state capital of Brisbane, residents and soldiers cleared muck from streets and homes in an effort to return life to normal a day after the swollen Brisbane River burst its banks, swamping entire suburbs. Further south, floodwaters continued to surge both in Queensland and the neighboring state of New South Wales. Separate flooding in Victoria state forced the evacuation of around 2,000 people, The Associated Press reported.
In Grantham, population 347, the violence of the disaster is more apparent than most places; the town remains sealed off by police and the Army under the same law that close off a crime scene. The mayor of the surrounding region of Lockyer Valley, Steve Jones, said many parts of town will have to be demolished before being rebuilt.
But in the face of the crisis, locals here, like flood hit areas across this sprawling tropical state, have banded together in cooperation, something that politicians and residents frequently say exemplifies the self-image of Australia — and in particular Queensland — as a place of rugged stoics.
Officials are unsure how many people died in Grantham, but say the surrounding Lockyer Valley and the nearby town of Toowoomba account for the majority of the 16 people killed across Queensland in the last week of flooding on top of 10 more people killed in previous weeks.
More than 28 people, including some Grantham residents, remain missing across the state. Powerful waters mean many bodies likely remain buried beneath debris and silt; one victim was found washed 80 kilometers down the valley.
Many in the town owe their lives to two men, Ray Van Dyke and Daniel Moore, who waded into swirling waters on Monday and rescued dozens of townspeople from their homes, picking a path door to door through churning debris.
“It’s ground zero, mate, it’s just out of control,” said Mr. Van Dyke, a prison guard known in town as “Stingray”.
“It’s crazy, I don’t know where I got my strength from, it was just adrenaline.”
Chris Short, a neighbor whose daughter was among those saved by Mr. Van Dyke and Mr. Moore, said the main concern now was waiting for permission to re-enter homes and rebuild.
“It’s a very, very tight communal sphere here and yeah it’s just frustration at the moment waiting for the heads up to go ahead and do stuff,” Mr. Short said. “Just finding out friends are dead, people you spoke to on Monday morning aren’t there anymore. That hurts, that really, really hurts.”
Arriving by helicopter and then a convoy of cars, Prime Minister Julia Gillard and state Premier Anna Bligh pledged rapid government assistance. After surveying the town, Ms. Bligh remarked of the town, “It looks like a war zone, not a flood.”
In many other areas of the state, the damage is less complete. Destruction follows a patchwork of broken levees and overwhelmed embankments; the pattern is more of a rising ooze than a raging torrent.
In the city of Ipswich, between Grantham and Brisbane, residents said many had forgotten the immediate threat of floods, which last struck the town on any comparably catastrophic scale in 1974. While flooding is part of the natural boom and bust weather cycle in this subtropical corner of Australia, most suffering in recent years has been caused by a decade long drought.
At the house of Martin and Michelle Lemeszko, neighbors relaxed from work on the second floor veranda near roof-height mud. In the yard, a story-high water tank lay crumpled like a soft drink can and clothes stayed pegged up on a muddy line.
One Ipswich neighbor, Zac Earl, said he had been working with little sleep at neighbors’ homes since floodwaters surged to unexpected highs in the town on Tuesday. Working together was the first time he met many neighbors, he said.
“We call it Aussie spirit, mate. It’s what you do over here in times like this. Everybody jumps in and helps out,” he said.
“We’ve already talked about when we get this done we’re going to have the biggest street party you’ve ever seen.”
But Mr. Earl conceded not all city residents were consumed with a civic spirit. Much of his night time work has consisted of watching out for looters. Police said 10 people were charged with looting in Brisbane and Ipswich on Friday.
“I’ve seen one car come down here last night and he started doing a burnout and I told him to piss off, and I used more extreme words than that,” Mr. Earl said.
Across the street, another neighbor picking through an entirely ruined home, Darin Preston, said he had received great amounts of help from friends and family, but cringed at any nationalistic explanation for the outpouring of support.
Generosity and support are far more universal traits than many think, he said.
“I think it’s a particular rough time of the year if you want to talk about jingoism because it’s Australia Day,” he said, referring to the upcoming national holiday on January 26.
By: Aubrey Belford (ny times)
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