Natural disasters and assholes

it's funny how natural disasters bring out the best and worst in people huh? from looters to heroes, man, they all come out.

i can already tell this is gonna be A LOT longer than i planned to write, but it's all context-building and ive got nothing better to do and i dont care if no one reads it really it's just an insignificant dip into my personal life. i cant sleep so why not recount my day, someone might get a kick out of it

you may or may not know that most of queensland australia is basically under water. our capital city has up to 1m of water in it, at least, and expected to rise tomorrow significantly. our city is probably ~3-4m higher than some of the lower-lying suburbs, so as you can imagine many homes are under water. the biggest contributing factor is the tide. the brisbane river, running through central brisbane out to the ocean, is tidal and so when the king tide comes in + the run off from the floods down south + our own catchment floods = big water. enough to cover qld. again.


How big is Queensland?

Queensland is the second largest Australian state.
Queensland's size is 1.7 million square kilometres, which is:

• nearly seven times larger than the United Kingdom
• larger than South Africa
• more than twice the size of Pakistan

If the State of Queensland was a country, it would rank as the 25th largest in the world; in between Libya and Iran.


and it's all under water. this flood is supposedly worse than the queensland flood records in 1974, and it hasn't even truly begun yet. we built a massive dam called Wivenhoe Dam (funny name now that i think about it) to catch all the mountain rain run-off to stop the floods from happening again. it's ideal level is about 60%.. as of a few hours ago it was at 180%+ and is expected to rise. a lot. if it gets over 200%, there's a realistic chance the dam wall could collapse, which means unfathomable amounts of water will explode into low-lying queensland suburbs who are incredibly unprepared for flood water and kill thousands within hours, easily, like an inland-originating tsunami. < pretty unlikely to happen but then again, we thought this entire situation was unlikely less than a week ago so who the fuck knows

anyway i'm rambling cuz im drunk and tired and stoned and sooo jacked up on ****** (asterisks. heavy shit man)

but there's a rather disturbing point to this story that has really gotten to me over the past few hours which i'm trying to get to while providing context and some info.

this morning i woke up, with the day off work (like the rest of the most of my state), with mum (who i love dearly) all up in my grills. she said something along the lines of "brisbane's under water, do you want to go out and help your dad try and give people a hand evacuating"

of course i said yes. i really didn't think anything of it, in fact, i assumed anyone able to would be doing the same. i wasn't exactly wrong, but i was certainly disappointed. it was basically everyone fending for themselves to get their shit out. i didn't get any photos cuz i'm not a cun*. i suspect there's nothing more annoying than having a bunch of dickheads in nice jeans and sneakers photographing you trying to get your personal and valuable shit out before the water comes up too far. there's plenty of news shots around the net anyway. so yeah.. we helped clear out 3 or 4 houses, one lady was certainly screwed til we came along. it was good to help them out, but really, it's pretty gnarly to witness. sad situation friends. also i should add my mate off gc (among others) was there helping too, topless. good bloke

so we helped out those families/people, and by the time we were done pretty much everyone else was gone so we went home at around 2-3pm.

i should also note that during all this, my dad's own workshop (small, privately-owned mechanic business) has all gone well and truly under water and, in short, my parent's livelihood has just sunk and although they're insured for a number of things, it's not even close to enough and there's a very good chance we could loose the business and go bankrupt since they can't pay back their parts suppliers etc. that they owe money too (cars are expensive business)

so just before we sit down for dinner, a friend of my dad's called up. his name's brett, and he's been friends with my dad for about 10 years. his car was at the workshop getting a big job done (clutch or something, i wasnt listening to be honest). we've been on family holidays together, spent many weekends together etc. basically he was regarded as a good friend. well, we managed to move all dad's customer's cars (including brett's) to higher ground before the water came, but the whole workshop went under and everything is fucked, basically, until the water drains out and we can clean up the mud and debris inside and start re-building the offices/etc. will take many weeks, if it can even be done depending on structural damage/future insurance overhead/etcetc (the place went under in 1974 so it'll be an extremely expensive place to insure now). at least we moved everything important out of there but still, there's only so much you can grab with a few utes and short notice

well.. brett's in japan snow-skiing or snow boarding or whatever the fuck 40 year old dudes do when they're rich. he heard about the floods so called my dad up, and get this man... dad thought he was calling to offer help when he got back on friday, as you'd expect from a friend, but no, he was calling to threaten a lawsuit if his work vehicle got damaged. he told my dad it was his responsibility to ensure the safety of it, and that if it gets looted or ruined he'll sue him. now, brett owns a hugely successful building company, and is a multi-millionaire with two huge boats and a mansion of a (dry) home. he could buy fifteen more hilux's in a heartbeat. he bought a giant yacht within days of checking it out. he's usually been a really nice guy, level-headed and not an asshole at all. him and dad have been really good mates for many years. my dad's a top guy, definitely doesn't deserve this from a good friend during the hardest time of his life. literally my dad's life's work, building a small one-man dodgy-mobile mechanic business run from a rusty old van into an impressive half-dozen staffed workshop, all underwater with a day's notice

so brett demands that his ute be ready by tuesday next week to pick up and dad said the cops dont even know when the entire suburb will be open, so he can't promise anything. more threats of lawsuits etc.

so now brett's dad rings to have a go at my dad, claiming he "never should have taken the job on in the first place when he knew it was going to flood".... first of all, had dad known about the incoming flood, common sense says brett would have known too, so why is it dad's responsibility to reject work based on potential natural disasters? second of all, he took the car in on monday before brett flew to japan, well before any emergency warnings or forced evacuations occured so close to home. brett and his family aren't under water, their fortune hasnt been touched by this natural disaster and he's fucking snowboarding in japan but am i missing something? how does a long-time friend turn into a lawsuit-hungry asshole when the whole state's underwater?

whatever bros, i guess there's no point trying to put sense to nonsense. i've never been emotionally close with my dad but we've always loved eachother, and seeing how truly shattered his spirit is (and mum's; they run the business together) is really kind of disheartening. they're really good people who don't deserve this bullshit, but then again, the same goes for most the other people caught up in this shit. it takes a lot to rattle my dad, but i think that if we hadn't gone out to help people evacuate their homes, he would have spent most the day at home on the verge of tears which is highly uncharacteristic of him. to watch him watch his life's work kind of sink in front of him was hardcore, man. nothing compares

i'm sick of writing now so im gonna fuck off, but yeah. that's my day for ya, and i'm sure it doesn't even compare to the people's who were rowing their valuable crap out of their house in tinnies and canoes. we got it lucky, really, but that's just a matter of perspective

but hey at least we're not dead right? i don't know what the point of this post was, i guess i just felt like venting and writing it down without deleting it. i certainly don't want any sympathy, save that for the people who've earned it. but my family went from a postcard financially-stable middle-class family, to the brink of bankruptcy and heartbreak overnight, literally. if we're not covered for business interruption, there's a high chance we'll lose everything but the house (my grandma owns it) - from our spare cars to internet/phones. personally, i could care less, but it's kind of scary knowing simple things like the internet could become unaffordable. very sobering indeed. and i'll find out in the morning if i still have a workplace to go to, otherwise i could also be jobless. i'm not necessarily complaining, i fully understand we've got it easy compared to some people who lost everything today. but isn't life a trip, man?



tl;dr.. i question assholes' motives, and the future of humanity in general. fuck that brett guy. love your family and love life the most you can, count and appreciate your blessings on the daily and love your neighbours (who deserve it) cuz they're all you've got. peace and love. man.