Help still needed 12 months after ‘Oswald’
Australia Day in 2014 marked one year since floods hit Bundaberg in Queensland. (Photo by Craig Walker)
A year after Bundaberg was hit with major floods caused by ex-tropical cyclone Oswald, many families still have no means of repairing their flood and storm-damaged homes.
The Community Rebuild Project, coordinated by The Salvation Army in partnership with the combined churches of Bundaberg, is continuing to help those in need.
The project was launched after the local council appealed to church leaders. The council had identified at least 100 homes in need of urgent repair or rebuilding, but whose owners had no means of carrying out the work.
The combined churches of Bundaberg, including the Bundaberg Salvation Army, enlisted huge volunteer support. Participants from The Salvation Army’s Tom Quinn Centre, ‘grey nomads’, community groups and individuals all rolled their sleeves up and have repaired 50 homes so far.
“The people we are assisting are primarily the elderly and single parent families who were uninsured or under-insured, or whose insurers would not cover the damage,” says Bundaberg corps officer Major Kevin Unicomb.
“Using volunteers and donated or reduced-cost items to return their homes to a safe and habitable standard, we are able to provide these people with a hand up that will see them better positioned to recover from the flood.”
Major Unicomb says about 4,000 properties were impacted by the floods, with water flooding more than 1,900 homes in early 2013.
“We estimate there may be many hundreds more people still unable to return to homes, with people living with friends, family, in caravans and tents or in damaged homes,” he says.
As part of community support through and after the floods, The Salvation Army initially supplied 28,000 meals and 43,000 snacks in the first few weeks to those in emergency centres.
A warehouse was also established to provide donated goods and other flood support and still opens by appointment. The Salvation Army has committed to providing a flood recovery counsellor, a chaplain and a flood recovery coordinator for at least the next 18 months.
In the past year, the Bundaberg Salvation Army has seen 1,073 families at least once for flood assistance and distributed 100 hampers to flood victims this Christmas.
Major Unicomb says the counsellor and chaplain are now reaching into the surrounding areas.
“So many of our rural people along the river and creeks were also affected. There were also many people also living simple, hermit-like lives in fishing shacks by the rivers and some of them still haven’t had contact,” he says.
“It is not an easy fix. The support has to be long-term. We were still working with people from the 2011 floods when this one hit – and this flood was massive in comparison.”
He says the recent rains brought a sense of fear back to many in the community
“There are a lot of nervous people around still – the trauma is still really easily triggered, but it makes a huge difference to people knowing they have support and that someone cares.”
Volunteers and donors can register on the Combined Churches of Bundaberg website combinedchurchesofbundaberg.com/communityrebuildgroup or call The Salvation Army Tom Quinn Centre on 07 4153 3557.
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