By Angela Hill

Former Prince Albert resident experiences flooding

Jan 14, 2011 | 11:33 AM

A former of Prince Albert resident is learning a lot about her newly adopted community, as Brisbane sees extreme flooding.

“People who have lost homes and have nothing else, they are still going out there and doing what they can to protect other people’s homes, which I think is incredible,” said Amber Barbeler, who moved to Australia a couple of years ago to be with her husband in his home country.

“The community is really pulling together over here, which is really great to see, but it’s just been devastation to see how many people have been affected by this.”

While Barbeler is fairly safe because of where her home is situated, she said she has heard horror stories from the weeks of flooding.

She describes a community to the north of her, where people that were evacuated three days after Christmas, only returned home last week.

Event Centre funding

City may hire lobbyist for event centre money

9h ago

International honours

Raiders' Kubiesa to represent Czechia at IIHF U18 Men's World Championship

13h ago

Learn the signs

How often should you change your brakes?

17h ago

The community Barbeler’s husband is from is laid out very similar to Prince Albert, she said. The bridge that connects the outer communities to the larger centre has been completely washed out, separating families, she said.

While Barbeler has been able to avoid the worst of the flooding, she, like almost everyone, has been affected by the water.

“It’s kind of a stressful situation so a lot of us aren’t getting much sleep these days,” she said.

“Our biggest concern right now, where we are, is groceries. We went to the grocery store when we found out how bad it was going to be and there’s no milk, no breads, no meats … it’s been tough.”

People with electricity are able to receive updates on the flood situation from Queensland police service through Facebook.

All emergency services have been busy, Barbeler said, especially keeping people away from the rising water.

“People are canoeing and kayaking up and down the streets,” she said.

With thousands of people who have lost homes and hundreds of thousands of others without power, Barbeler said the community has pulled together to help each other out.

“There have been evacuation centres … I know several thousand people are there too and this really couldn’t happen without the power of volunteers,” she said.

“It always seems so surreal when you hear it and you don’t see it, but when it’s on your back door, it makes you really want to try to do something even if it’s a little bit as mentioning a website and raising funds.”

If people are interested in learning more about the floods or want to help donate, Barbeler suggests going to the Government of Queensland’s website set up for the flooding.

ahill@panow.com