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Horror at mass underwater grave
From Herald Sun - now the waters are peaking in Brisbane and have started to recede in Toowoomba, Grantham and other northern areas, the grisly task of retrieving bodies will begin...Here people have set up a billet system to house victims and teir pets too: even if in another state, can still offer. Phone DOCS (in Aus) on 1800 018 444 in office hours. Horror at mass underwater grave in Grantham, Lockyer Valley (Queensland, north of Brisbane) IT was once a railway bridge used daily by freight trains, and now it is a mass underwater grave, bearing little hope for rescuers. Bobbing in the muddy water beneath the Grantham bridge are up to 30 crumpled cars, washed down stream when the flood hit. "You'd have to think with 30-odd cars here, we're about to find some pretty unpleasant things," a police officer said. know a reporter there on the ground he said it really does look like it was hit by a Tsunami, just unimaginable devastation. No hope for survival for some whose houses just imploded on them Within the once 300-strong community, some 43 people are missing. Another three have been confirmed dead. The once vibrant Grantham has become a ghost town, the ground zero of Queensland's crisis. Just one street of houses remains intact - everything else has been flattened. Communication is a struggle, with no power or phone lines, but the consensus among survivors and rescuers alike is: "If you haven't been found by now, you simply couldn't have survived." Very sad, but on a positive note the death toll is far far less than it could have been. We are a developed, well-organised bunch down here so it's not like say Pakistan where it would have been 60,000 dead. The deathtoll hopefully will be less than 50 people. Here it is the despair after as people's lives are ruined and they might not rebuild that you've got to watch. Post traumatic stress for emergency workers, survivor's guilt, suicide: all to be battled Posted by: anon1 2011-01-12 |
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