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Family devasted by supercell storm

Reading this will take a minute or 2....recovering from this will take this family years.

We are all in a state of shock when it comes to seeing what this family has lost at the hand of the ferocious storm that hit Maryborough QLD on Thursday evening. Whilst I understand that sadly many people received varying degrees of damage ..... the degree of devastation for this family is heart- reaching.
Their property that housed 4 parts of this family in seperate residences have lost everything. The parents, grandmother and 3 young adults (14, 17, 24,) are now working out how to pick up the peices- literally as their homes, garage, stables, workshed, stockfeed and personal belongings (sadly including dead pets and animals) are now blown all over the place.

3 of the 4 houses have the windows smashed and a thick layer of mush on the floor. They can’t escape the disgusting wet mud smell as everything is soaking wet and destroyed. J(24) spent yesterday in tears as she threw out her couch and bed (she’s a hard worker and proud that she had set up from her own wages).

Dad drove home through the night of the storm (he works away) because he just wanted to “get to all his girls”. Mum works in Tinana and she too was at work and unable to get home. As parents unable to help the kids or know if they are safe the “getting home” was torturous. What they saw when they got there was “like a bomb went off”

The garage was destroyed with its roof gone and walls collapsed in onto the cars. The poles with concrete boulders at the base have been roped out of the ground.
Many of the horses and donkey ran with fear becoming lost in the darkness.
When the storm had settled enough the girls went looking for the animals. The powerlines were down (literally laying on the ground out front of the main house) so the stables and garage (where animals were trapped) were inaccessible.
One stable had collapsed (with 2 horses in it) and the other had blown away. The arena was now just bits of metal over the yard, the chooks pen no longer existed and the shed had collapsed trapping one of the family dogs. With the powerlines down he was stuck there until the next day.

All the animals have now been accounted for (thank you to everyone on FB for helping locate them) but sadly not all survived. Unfortunately the girls had the heartbreaking task of burying their beloved pony yesterday
Many of the chooks and guinea fowl didn’t make it either.

The trapped dog and hoses are ok. But 2 horses sustained serious injuries and many are sore and bruised from the pelting hail.

All the stockfeed was either drowned or blown away and they had just received $500 worth of hay for the horses.

Now the clean up
The heartbreak of picking up dead pets, clearing out the twisted tin and metal and finding belongings destroyed and soaking wet under the slush left by the melting ice.

Every time you bend down and pick something up to put in the bin you think”omg not this too....there is nothing untouched. How on earth are they going to rebuild all this”

If you know the family I’m talking about you will know how much they do for those who can’t. The reason they have so many animals is because they save them and rehabilitate them.

They are the first to help other but the last to ask.

So I’m asking for them. Please let’s show them the spirit they often give to others. Let’s help them through this disaster. We can’t help bury the animals or pick up the debris but we can help them start again.
Part of surviving such a horrific experience is knowing people care, that you are seen and that your anguish is not shoved aside.

Please help me show this family that we care, and even if we can’t physically help, let them know we see their pain and anguish and hope for them to get through this knowing they are not forgotten


rest in peace Candy
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Donations 

  • Angels Bates
    • $20 
    • 5 yrs
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Organizer and beneficiary

Jo Anne Coulch
Organizer
Mount Urah QLD
Trinity Dunning
Beneficiary

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