Australian flooding now hammers Victoria State

by Keven Drews
Lutherans living in the south-eastern Australian state of Victoria are now dealing with the worst flooding in 15 years.

Heavy rains and floodwaters, which devastated Queensland and New South Wales states in late December and early January, have now hit the country’s south – leaving damaged homes and cars in their wake.

“A number of district church members…have been severely effected, but thankfully many appear to be having narrow escapes,” said Rev Greg Pietsch, president of the Lutheran Church of Australia’s (LCA)Victoria District, in a January 18 letter.

Floodwaters have entered only a few members’ homes and destroyed only a few cars, so far, said Pietsch, and those floodwaters were kept at bay at a church-run primary school and nursing home.

“While church people and property may have largely escaped so far, there are plenty of others who have not and whom our members are helping right now,” said Pietsch.

Victoria state is located on the southern tip of Australia’s east coast, below New South Wales and north of Tasmania. It is home to nearly 100 Lutheran churches.

So far this January, more than 100 millimetres of rain have fallen – a record for the state.

On Tuesday, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) reported flooding had impacted 51of the state’s towns, and in the northwest town of Warracknabeal, waters were threatening 140 homes.

Warracknabeal is home to one LCA congregation, Our Redeemer Lutheran Church.

Meantime, to the north in Queensland, Lutherans are still cleaning up.

Rev. Noel Noack, president of the LCA’s Queensland District, said floodwaters have now receded, and the Brisbane River is flowing within its banks.

“Now the cleanup begins,” said Noack, in an email to CanadianLutheran.ca “There is a thick silt sludge covering every area that was flooded. At our Church House there is a thick oil sludge covering the silt in the car park of our offices.”

That’s a different story to what happened in 1974, when the district’s offices “were flooded to a depth of 45 centimetres,” said Noack, in a separate website posting.

So far the floods have impacted more than 200,000 people.

The Australian Red Cross (ARC) reports more than 20,000 people have registered with its National Registration and Inquiry System in Queensland.

As of Tuesday, the death toll had hit 20, and 10 people were still reported missing in Queensland.

The Australian, the country’s national newspaper, also reported Tuesday the cost of rebuilding Queensland could hit as much as (AUS)$20 billion. The state government, however, still won’t know the full scale of the damage for weeks.

The floods were a result of Cyclone Tasha, which made landfall on Christmas Day. In some areas, more than 800 centimetres of rain fell, damaging an area in Queensland larger than the province of British Columbia.

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