10 YEARS ON, ‘DEVASTATION STAYS WITH YOU’
WHEN Leanne Woolard thinks back on the devastation of torn-up homes and shattered families during the 2011 floods, it doesn’t feel like a decade has passed.
This week marks 10 years since a series of floods forced thousands of people to evacuate and killed almost three dozen people across parts of Queensland.
As the South Eastern Region’s SES deputy local controller, Ms Woolard combed through the wreckage with cadaver dogs, searching for those who had disappeared.
In Grantham, where she was searching, the water was already eight metres high by the time it slammed into homes and businesses.
Ultimately 12 people in the town lost their lives. Some of the bodies would never be recovered.
“The devastation to the people who lived there stays with you,” she said.
“Some things are still very real. We were out at Grantham for one reason, to try to find the people who were lost.
“I think being there made a difference (to the people). It was heartwarming when you were coming into town or leaving that there was a big sign on a building, saying: ‘Thank you from the people of Grantham’.
“For them, knowing what we were there for, that helped them.
“(But) there were some funny things too. Things like a four-foot fish tank that had obviously come out of someone’s house, sitting next to the train track unbroken.
“And an old walker sitting upright on its wheels, waiting for someone. It was really bizarre, that things could travel that far and not be broken.”
Now a teacher on the Gold Coast, Ms Woolard said she still showed
photos she took of the flood’s aftermath to her students.
“It’s to try to teach them the power of what water can do, to teach them to listen to warnings and advice,” she
said. “People can become complacent that it won’t happen to them, but in some areas it can happen to anyone. It’s Mother Nature, she’s got a mind of her own.”