Wednesday, February 09, 2011

Put in our place by the weather


It has been a while since i have written anything on here. The last time I was really blogging regularly was back in 2007. But i was reminded by my friend Cameron, who also has a blog I have just discovered called 'Rustry Brown Dog', that it is quite a good thing to do. So here I am returning to 'Might Be somewhere' after a bit of a sabatical.

It might also be because I find myself with some time on my hand, this week anyway! Last week in Queensland they were hit with the biggest Tropical Cyclone to ever hit the Australian shores. The trail of destruction that we have seen in its wake is something to behold and I feel great empathy for those who's lives have been picked up by the force of that wind and turned upside down.

So strong was Yasi that it's effects have been felt here in the desert too. On the weekend Alice Springs braced itself for a storm and severe flooding. As it turned out the hype about the storm turned out to carry more force than the storm itself. We did indeed get quite alot of rain and other areas in the East and to the South were quite affected.

What has happened is that almost every road in and out of Alice Springs has become impassable due to flooding or water damage.

This has meant that I cant travel out to the Community where I have gone back to teaching this year. It is a strange feeling knowing that you should be somewhere else doing something else, but that you are unable to overcome whatever is preventing you.

I think my small experience here, and in a much greater sense the experience of Queenslanders over the past month, is quite a profound reminder of our complete lack of power in the face of what Mother Nature can serve up. It is hard not to be humble in the face of such a power.