Helping hand
Christmas is a time for family and kinship and needed now more than ever
CHRISTMAS is meant to be a time for family and togetherness. When the woes of the world are hopefully put into the recesses of the mind, at least for a day or two as people come together to reconnect, reflect and share good times at the festive peak.
Now more than ever that spirit of togetherness and neighbourly comfort and connection is pivotal as large parts of the Gold Coast emerge from destructive cyclonic level storm winds which hit on Christmas night.
More of the same was forecast on Boxing Day night at the Bulletin went to press.
New Premier Steven Miles has called for people to let the Energex teams doing their work as they battle to restore electricity to homes as quickly as possible.
But given the scale of the impact - with almost 1000 power lines recorded to be down and at one point power out to 123,000 properties across south-east Queensland, many home owners and residents face being without for days.
“There are further storms predictedthis afternoon so I would just urge all southeast Queenslanders to keep safe and take care of each other,” Mr Miles intoned on Tuesday afternoon.
His words were echoed by Gold Coast’s Oxenford resident Graciela Castle who recounted cowering in her home as the peak of the category 2 cyclone winds blasted the city.
“I’m just happy me and the family, children next door are OK Everyone was out last night clearing the road and helping each other, doing whatwe can.”
That’s the community spirit that always comes to the fore in this great city, something it doesn’t get a lot of kudos for when the stereotypes are bandied about on the Gold Coast.
Also think of the city’s major tourist attractions, it’s theme parks. Both Village Roadshow and Dreamworld had to make the difficult decision to close most of their attractions to assess damage.
Like Energex they are working around the clock to reopen and get the lights back on, so to speak.
The clean up for many will be long and hard and now more than ever a bit of neighbourly and community spirit will go a long way for those impacted.
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