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Living through a disaster

 

I have always been compassionate towards those who suffer terrible disasters. But I now realise that with the best of intentions, no-one can ever understand what it is actually like until they too experience one. Just over a week ago, we had a category 3 cyclone which devastated our region and other parts of our country. My husband and I were fortunate in that although our street was flooded we did not have to evacuate. Others were not so fortunate and there was huge loss of property and also loss of life. The stories were heart-breaking. We had no electricity for five days and limited gas for cooking, limited fuel for the Coleman lamp and limited cans of food—all of these had sold out very quickly and were not available even after the cyclone passed over. We lost food from the fridge and freezer. We were cut off with roads and bridges washed out so no goods got through. Although we had prepared in advance, we really had no idea of the actual damage that would happen and how difficult it would be to manage without power. However:

·         We lived through it!

·         Our home was safe

·         We had drinking water

·         We had cold canned food if we ran out of gas

·         We had a bit of cash on hand if EFTPOS went down

·         We were able to get emergency supplies of my husband’s medication

·         We had great neighbours who checked up on us

·         Our Corps Officers (Ministers) popped around twice during the week to ensure we were safe and had what we needed

·         We had torches for when the lamp cut out

·         We were not isolated within our community and were not in danger

·         We were not in a war zone

·         One of our cell phones worked intermittently and we had a battery radio so knew what was happening in our city

·         Although the behaviour of some people was extremely disappointing, we saw the incredible kindness of others

·       And wonderfully, our son and his wife made a seven hour trip once a road opened to bring us more gas, fuel, batteries, phone charging devices, lamps, canned food, a chillibin of ice with frozen meat, vegetables, fresh milk and fresh bread (there was none in the supermarkets), plus so much more. They also brought a trailer load of donated goods down for one of the civil defence drop off centres and were able to help a lady with toilet paper and two men who had lost their homes with the extra gas bottle.

So be safe friends, and count your blessings.

 


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Comments

  1. RayFebruary 27, 2023 at 7:21 PM

    Great post Lynda. It was a scary time for many people and a time of great loss for others. It was and still is a time for us to show the love of God to those who have been impacted by it.

    ReplyDelete

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