Tragedy

Tragedy hit Toowoomba yesterday. It was such a crazy flash flood. Over 80 mils (3.14 inches) fell in an a half hour. Southeast Queensland has been facing flooding for the past month and since Toowoomba is up on a bluff we didn't think we would have any trouble. The way the town is situated is that there are 2 creeks that run through 2 valleys down the center of town. One starts just a few blocks from our house. Normally they function well, but with the deluge of rain that fell made this a tragic outcome.

There are 72 missing and 8 dead. I just learned that a woman who attends the same monthly God-Gazing was killed with her husband as their home was hit by the flood.

What people are fearing now is the wall of water coming down the range and hitting communities of Gatton & Grantham and others towards Brisbane. Wivenhoe dam has saved Brisbane, but it is so full they have to let some water out and it will flood many Briz suburbs. Roads are closed into town and many people are isolated.

Please pray for these families who are separated. Pray for the families who have lost their children or parents. Ugh. Just heart-breaking. They are telling us to stay off the roads as there is so much destruction and back up from yesterday. It rained hard all night and the city center is shut down today. Please pray for all the emergency response people as they are working so hard to answer the many distress calls.

Here is a video of one of those creeks.
What's so scary is that there were people in many of the cars that were washed away.




This was where the main flooding happened. A few blocks from our office.

Near Gatton

The community is in shock with several dead and lots of houses & businesses flooded. Please pray that the church responds well in it all and points people to Jesus. There is more heavy rain predicted for today.