Mum and dad's house is completely gutted. We have been up with the rest of the family to help take all of the furniture which just looks like piles of rubbish, out of the house and onto the footpath as the council and the army are going around collecting everything that was ruined from the floods.

We have taken out all of the walls, the tiling, bathrooms, pretty much everything except for the frame,the bricks, the foundation and the roof. The frame is in pretty bad shape as things from one of the sheds on mum and dads property were thrown into the back of it and destroyed the walls and there are cracks in the brickwork.

It will be covered by their insurance which is a good thing but as I said in the last entry, it's the loss of the home not the house that is heartbreaking for my parents.

They are still at my sisters and will be for the next 3 to 6 months until the house is rebuilt. They are doing ok, they are 70 and dad is not of the best health as it is but he was making jokes with me when I went up there so that says a lot, mum is a very strong woman though has broken down a few times which I expect to happen. They have been through a lot and this is another blow but they will get back up again and we will be right by their side to help.

I am so overwhelmed and proud of everyone in my state and those from other states who have come from near and far to help clean up the mess left behind from the floods.

Every single day since the floods hit there have been thousands of people helping those who lost their houses and businesses clean up and clean up the streets.

The mayor of Brisbane put a call out for volunteers, they organised a meeting point for them as of last Saturday. On Saturday by 7.30am, 7000 people had turned up with brooms, gloves, hoses, buckets and other things to help. How amazing is that? The number rose much more throughout the day and into the next day.

A radio station called on all tradesmen to donate a week of work to assist as well and there were about 2000 of them who did.

Everywhere you looked there were people just walking into strangers properties to start the cleanup.

People were taking around drinks and sandwiches, cakes, fruit and more to keep the working crews hydrated and energised.

The governement had by the day after the flood started giving out payments to those who lost their belongings to get clothing, medication and food. The Premier of our state started the flood appeal last week and last time I looked it was close to 100,000,000 raised by Australians. People from New Zealand have even flown over to help with the clean up.

It's just been awesome to see so much mateship and support for each other in the suburbs, cities and the entire state.

My mum and dad did not have a lot of time to get things out, they did manage to get the 3 cats and 2 dogs to a safe place and grab pictures. I asked mum if she managed to get her diary, she didn't and was so upset about it. Mum has had this diary for close to 50 years, she has written in it often and all of us kids when we were growing up wrote in it along with our kids.

Good news though! as the flood waters were receding (did I mention they got to 19.5 metres?!) a couple of my brothers, one of my sisters and my brothers girlfriend went to the house but still could not get into mum and dads road as the water was still too high. They ended up going up another road and walking through some other small acreages to get to the back of mum and dads so they could go around the front. When they got there they found there was still water in the house and floating in the water was the coffee table..on the coffee table was mums diary! My brothers girlfriend put her hand through the window and grabbed it..it does have water damage but amazingly it can be salvaged..so good to know that especially considering the water rose to the ceiling!

Below are some pictures of my parents house, the first one was taken in December..everything looks beautiful and green and fresh..not so much now!

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