Laidley school is counting the costs of floods - Catholic Leader

Published: 3 March 2013

By: Robin Williams

FLOODWATERS throughout most of the state have now receded but one Catholic primary school hit by two floods in as many years has a simple message for fellow Queenslanders, "Please, don't forget about us".

St Mary's Catholic Primary School, Laidley, west of Brisbane, is still recovering from the second "one in one hundred year" flood event to hit the town in 24 months.

Speaking to staff and students is humbling in light of their faith and resilience.

And while assistant principal for religious education Tracey Gaddes said the spirit was strong she said people also needed help.

"I think after the floodwaters go down and the mud starts to dry - and there is still a lot of mud - people start to forget so we'd probably ask people, don't forget because there are people here who will have a nightmare for a very long time," she said after the most recent flood at the end of January.

Both Mrs Gaddes and principal Nathan Haley asked for widespread community prayer support to continue.

Mr Haley said prayers did make a difference.

"Prayerful support is one thing and it's something that needs to continue, but what we found after 2011 and what is significantly documented is the long-term mental effects on people - suicide and things like that - and thankfully we didn't experience too much of that in our community but it was certainly something that was evident across other areas," he said.

Mrs Gaddes said financial and emotional support would be far more crucial for flood victims this time around.

"People from the last flood whose insurance went so high that they couldn't afford it anymore no longer have insurance," she said.

"So there are people who took two years to get on their feet just to lose it all again.

"They need help and they are going to need ongoing help and they are really going to need - aside from money - support for their mental health."

Mr Haley and Mrs Gaddes also offered their thanks and gratitude for the overwhelming support already received and said help had come from a vast and diverse selection of groups and individuals.

Fellow Brisbane Catholic Education staff from St Augustine's College, Springfield; Immaculate Heart Catholic Primary School, Leichhardt; and Our Lady of Good Counsel Catholic Primary School, Gatton; along with students from St Edmund's College, Ipswich; and St Mary's College, Toowoomba, were among the hundreds of people who arrived to help with the clean-up.

Mrs Gaddes said staff were knee deep in mud.

"Slipping and sliding everywhere but everyone worked hard together and they had positive spirits and everyone worked tirelessly to get it done," she said.

Mr Haley said staff were amazed by how "settled" students were on their first day back at school.

"We realised after the 2011 floods that the impacts on children were not necessarily evident first-off in the way that they presented at school," he said.

"But certainly the first time we had an afternoon storm near pick-up and things like that you soon learnt where children's mindsets were with regards to storms, rain and 'Is it going to flood?' and 'Will we be alright?' and so for us we're certainly starting to put in the contingency plans to look after students long term but we also appreciate that there are adults out there in the commuity who also need looking after."

Mr Haley said the school had to consider how to "reach out to them and say, 'It's alright to ask for help - it's alright to ask for support'."

Year 6 student Jodie Seng was one of many children and youths who have lived through the two floods and who were out helping shovel mud once the most recent floodwaters had gone down.

The 10-year-old and members of her family were either at St Mary's Church or the school helping where they could.

The work wasn't without tragedy with the Catholic community hit hard a second time when a volunteer collapsed and died during the church clean-up on January 28.

Jodie, having lived through both floods, admits to being worried about the future.

"I'm sort of worried but not too much but I know there is going to be another flood," she said with a strong emphasis on the word 'know'.

"They said that it was going to be a one in one hundred years but now it's been two in two years."

Jodie was in Toowoomba visiting extended family during the 2011 flood and a one-night stay turned into four days.

"We were in Grand Central and we came out and all we saw was this water and we hoped they were okay at home and we called them up and they said we wouldn't be able to come up and I was 'Oh no'."

This time Jodie was at home and while the family farm lost soil and seed, just being at home eased the worry.

"Lots of our seed got washed away so now we have to plant it all over again," she said.

Year 7 student Alexander Van Daalen, one of a family of six children, is worried about future floods but believes his mother has the situation well in hand.

He said that, during the 2011 flood, the family was stranded by the quickly rising water and had to seek shelter from strangers.

"We went to the house on the corner, the pink house, and we were there for the night and that's when it went down and we could go back home," he said.

"We lost a couple of things in the shed but not much and then (with) this one Mum said 'I'm not doing what happened last time' so she packed a whole lot of people into her car and we went up to the evacuation centre."

The 12-year-old said that, in the most recent flood, the family lost a lot of possessions in their shed such as bikes and skate equipment but were fortunate their house was spared.

"We put everything up that was important and it almost got into the house," Alexander said.

"It got onto the veranda and then there was a step and it didn't go into the house but it wiped a whole lot of stuff from the shed."

Alexander said their neighbour wasn't as fortunate and lost everything.

Year 5 student Taylor Crosby and her family were isolated on their farm but consider themselves fortunate to be one of just four houses to retain power.

The nine-year-old said that, in the most recent flood, the family lost its sorghum and soya beans.

"Some of the creek broke out and went all over the soya beans and all sticks are over the soya beans and you have to go pick that up," she said.

Taylor, along with many other children in the area, did their part when it came to cleaning up what she described as "the foot of slop everywhere".

She admits she is concerned about future floods.

"I'm a bit worried about if we have another flood is it going to be bigger than this one, what's going to happen to everything if it is bigger?"

There was a general conscensus among the three children that if or, in Jodies's case, when it floods again the only place they want to be is with their families.

The final word went to the principal who said that, as a faith-based community, St Mary's had done and would continue to do everything it could to not only help its own but to also help the wider community.

"And it is certainly something that we will continue to be thinking about for not only days and weeks and months but years to come and we realise that it does take that long for people to get over it and the long-term support needs to continue to meet their needs," he said.

Footnote: Laidley again had minor flooding on Monday.