Flood distress

Published: 12 February 2012
By: Paul Dobbyn

FLOOD-battered townspeople in Roma and Mitchell are picking themselves up off the mat as the muddy water subsides, leaving devastation in its wake.

Further west, at Charleville and St George, hopes were growing early in the week that the towns may escape flooding this time as levees held back vast stretches of water.

Roma-Mitchell parish priest Fr Jamie Col-lins said both towns were in a state of shock.

He was due to go to Mitchell last Tuesday for a school Mass, but said he would not be able to get in.

"The town's been cut off," he said.

"The church and school have been inundated.

"Mitchell's been pretty well spared in the past. Certainly it's never been flooded in living memory to this extent.

"People are really hurting."

Roma has had a double shock with the drowning death of local woman - Jane Sheahan - and the flooding of as many as 300 homes, at least 100 more than the flood before last.

"Mrs Sheahan's death has put a pall of sadness over the town," Fr Collins said.

"As the mayor noted, no one had died in the previous floods."

Tragedy also struck at St George last Sunday when an 18-month-old girl drowned in a dam on a property south-west of the town.

Fr Collins has put up three people in the presbytery - one a pensioner from a St Vincent de Paul Society hostel for single men located not far from the town's Bungil Creek and a married couple whose house went under.

Roma's Catholic school, church and other property were well out of reach of the flood waters although the school was expected to be closed all last week due to the impact on teaching staff and students.

Goondiwindi-St George parish priest Fr Michael O'Brien, born and raised in Roma, said the pace and volume of water through the town had been extraordinary.

"My mother is 82 and has lived in Roma all her life," he said.

"She told me she'd never seen water like it before."

He was speaking from Goondiwindi having left St George the previous week to attend a wedding in Dalby.

"Now I can't get back into St George and this situation could continue for several days," Fr O'Brien said.

Two Marist Sisters - Sr Kate McPhee and Sr Beverley Lewis - have remained behind in St George to offer pastoral support where necessary.

They arrived in town last July and had just returned from holidays when the latest flood situation developed.

Sr McPhee said the decision to stay had been difficult.

"A lot of people have left town due to a mandatory evacuation order," she said.

"We decided to stay because we believed we would not be putting ourselves or anyone else in danger.

"We have a contingency plan to move to a parishioner's residence on higher ground if the flooded Balonne River does breach the levee.

"Staying behind has already given us an opportunity to meet people we hadn't met before."

Sr McPhee said the lower parts of the town's western side were already inundated, but there was optimism the levees would hold.

"The Balonne Shire Council's workers are to be commended for the hard work they've put in on the levees," she said.

Charleville's parish priest Fr Peter Doohan spent more than eight months out of his presbytery after it was flooded in March 2010 - several months in the Anglican rectory and the remainder with the town's mayor Mark O'Brien.

As he spoke with The Catholic Leader on Monday he reported a sea of water "at least five kilometres wide" being held back from the town.

"In one sense it's a lovely sight but it's also a fearful one, when you real- ise there's only eight inches or so of cement stopping another 2010 flood," he said.

So far his presbytery has stayed dry although he did have to leave during a compulsory evacuation not long after midnight on February 4.

"The sirens sounded and I joined everyone else at the showground evacuation centre," he said.

"At one point there were signs of leakage on the levee bank.

"But teams worked tirelessly through the night to eventually se- cure the levee with sandbags."

Since then, at the request of the town's authorities, he led a church service at the showgrounds on the evening of February 5 which includ- ed "some hymns, prayers and scrip- ture".

At the moment, life in Charleville was still "a bit of a waiting game", Fr Doohan said.

St Mary's School had its furniture and other equipment shifted from the bottom to the top floor and it would take three days to set up once authorities gave the go-ahead.

"We have to wait until the assess- ment changes and get the go-ahead to return to living life as normal," Fr Doohan said.

"At this stage the levee is working well so we're hopeful."

As The Catholic Leader went to press on Tuesday the levee wall at St George was reported to be holding.

The Balonne River was expected to peak at about 14m, below the highest of the levees protecting the Queensland town of St George.