Dear Friends in Christ Our Saviour, If you have been watching the unfolding catastrophe of our flood crisis here in South East Queensland, Christian Charity may be urging you to donate to the relief effort.  Even though SusanMaria.com Studios is in a safe township, where only minor flooding occurred, I feel compelled to appeal to your charity, as I am still right in the stricken heart of this region and the recovery process will be difficult.  It will take quite some time for this region to get back to normal, and my business has already had to brave two years of global economic hardship.  We are expected increased costs of living - food, fuel and other commodities are set to soar.   I had intended to launch an Annual Appeal, so this is my plea to you to consider supporting a truly Catholic Vestment House, and through that help in the rebuilding of Sacristies throughout the world. Please rest assured that none of the sewing machines, or any of the stock have been damaged, as I do not live in a flood prone township.  Work continues as usual for my sewing contracts, but it certainly will be a difficult time over the coming months for everyone here.

 

My nearest major city is Ipswich, population 180,000, which was severely flooded last week.  Sodden furniture and personal effects weighing 100,000 TONS is now being carted off to land fill sites.  By a miracle of God, my favorite fabric store, Bargain Box was spared.  Some quick thinking staff members at the last minute  on Tuesday, 11th January, grabbed the hundreds of rolls of fabric and loaded them onto pickup trucks.  The water only reached the floor level of the building.  A carpet cleaner came to help them as soon as the water receded, the electrical wiring was checked and the business was up and running again within days.  The recruitment Agency I work for on a part time basis is right next door to Bargain Box.  They  also only had water come up to the flooring.  In Queensland, homes are built similarly to those I have seen in Myrtle Beach - they are highset on stilts, which allows the air to circulate and comes in handy during floods.  My recruitment firm had about 15 or more feet under their floorboards, which took the brunt of the  floods The recruitment team is back in their office now, fully operational.   I had commenced a great assignment as a secretary in the Brisbane Downtown, only the day before the flood crisis emergency of the 11th.   My wonderful new job is now in Limbo, as my building was flooded and no-one can return until it is safe to do so.  The section I was working in has scattered across Brisbane to other offices in the Department (the Department of Communities), and they won't know for at least two weeks if my job still exists.  Just before the water rose to inundate the main streets of Ipswich, I drove around the corner from Bargain Box and the recruitment firm, and energetically threw Epiphany water onto the road, asking God to not allow the water to rise high enough to engulf these two buildings.  Judging by the mountains of soggy debris outside the other buildings in the area, God heard my plea.

The severe crisis has left my home State of Queensland shattered and in many places, destroyed.   It has rained here for months, and the building water reserves, along with more torrential rain these last few weeks, resulted in South East Queensland suffering severe flooding.   Storms are still rolling in, with major damage occurring just two days ago in suburbs that escape the deluge.  I am still reeling from the shock of a freak inland tidal wave forming on a mountain range and sweeping away an entire township as the water surged to the base of the range.  It is almost too horrible to comprehend.   Never in the history of Australia have we had such a thing.  Families sitting in their homes were engulfed in water and literally 'buried alive' in the mud, water and their homes crushing in around them.   Other, luckier neighbours could hear the screams coming from the homes, as the water swept them away to grim, totally unexpected and probably unprepared for, deaths. 

To be honest, this Statewide catastrophe does not surprise me.  Since I came back to Queensland from Western Australia just over two years ago, I have sensed that God would punish this State.  Everyone has an innate sense of natural justice.   I have often said that God would punish the state, but never dreamt it would happen 'just like that', and with all these components, some due to nature and others due to man himself.  And I was there right in the thick of it!  I have NEVER, EVER felt the protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary as strongly as I did last week.  It moved me to tears. 

A QUESTION OF NUMBERS...

Mysteriously, Queensland has 13 Government departments.  13?  It's as if the state has a little 'coven' thing going, right under the noses of Queenslanders.   But no-one really notices, as the economy is 'booming' and jobs pay well here.  A good Catholic acquaintance of mine in Brisbane has for years been following the rise  and rise of witchcraft in the region, and how satanic symbolism has even made its way into the Catholic Cathedral in the downtown.   I dislike reading about all that stuff, it makes me shudder, but there is a lot of truth in what he says - for years he has published a journal called "News from the Pews".

The devil loves high places, and it is no shock that the Darling Downs Mountain Range got such a beating from nature last week.  Yes, there are good people in the world.  They live everywhere, and sometimes get caught up in these disasters.  But it is certainly true that society brings upon itself the punishment of God when it runs headlong into sin and hedonism.

 

Many people had moved from other states in order to snap up the property market over the last ten years.  Many sold homes in rather backwater parts of Sydney, making a handsome profit.  They then came to South East Queensland and suddenly entered the ranks of the 'new rich' - complete with proud, arrogant attitudes.  I remember one man telling me smugly, about eight years ago, that he had sold his home in Sydney, and bought TEN HOMES here in Brisbane. I didn't know what to say.  What do you say to smug fat cats like that?  Then there was the investor from Sydney who bought not ten, but over ONE HUNDRED homes here during the boom years.  This  wave of interstate investors effectively locked out many Queenslanders  from the property ladder, and forced the poorer classed out into the fringes of the city.   A sophisticated, snide contempt ruled supreme amongst those who 'owned' homes.  I noticed it even among Catholics I know, and believe you me, that form of pride can be very hurtful to ordinary folk.    Just a few weeks ago I was thinking that property owners in Brisbane seemed proud to have 'got to a certain point' in their material standards.  But honestly, that point is probably exactly where the SWISS WERE 40 YEARS AGO!     And where does the spirit of Catholic poverty fit into the picture?  It is an ironic twist of fate that many of the home owners who are now left with a sodden shell of a home, and have witnessed all their mountains of treasured material possessions being carted off in endless convoys of stinking, putrid trucks, now can't get flood insurance payouts.  The insurance firms willing to pay have immediately put up the premiums for  everyone, flood damage or no flood damage.  There will be a strong domino effect coming from this.  Catholic morality dictates that we are not allowed to 'gloat' at the losses of others, but the reality of the unfolding situation  would be discernable even from Neptune.  And the verse 'He hath put down the mighty' leaps to mind.  The insurers are claiming that the flood was man made, and it probably was. 

And the gridlock of pride and contempt has been snapped like a cotton thread.  

I do feel compassion and empathy with the people who have suffered, and the charity of the Brisbane people who have gone in the tens of thousands to help their fellow citizens in wonderful to see.  I myself went and helped a Catholic friend and his wife scrape their home (valued at almost $600,000 just two weeks ago), out of the muck and caked filth.   There were hundreds of people in the street, helping wherever they could.  Some Aussie men had set up a tent and were sizzling saugages on a BBQ, giving everyone free food.  A young couple came with a pickup truck loaded with free fresh bottled water on ice.  Gone is the self-absorbed, clinical style haughtiness.  Brisbane residents actually look interested in their fellow  man, rich or poor, and have a look of purpose and best of all - belonging.  It reminds me of the Brisbane I knew back in 1982, when this place was just a big, friendly country town.  We Queenslanders have rediscovered our identity, one that has nothing to do with materialism.  But what can you say to someone in that situation?  I told my friend that God would take of him.   I had spent almost an hour pressure hosing the main bathroom of the house (in Australia, a bathroom usually contains just the bathtub and a wash sink.  I said "Well, I've cleaned your bath, it just needs some disinfectant now".  My friend looked dazed.  Disinfectant?  How can you disinfect a situation like this?  The entire suburb reeks, and they have lost their home in one sense.  What would it be worth now when the water  was waist high in the living room.?  Please pray for them, and many other good people who have suddenly lost everything. 

BELOW:  This trusty old van belongs to a family friend, Jeff.  The water level was up and over this vehicle and flooded out the downstairs area of his house.   Jeff's washing machine and other junk were out on the footpath in a great heap, when I took this photo, ready to be sent to the tip.  This might just look like an old van to you, but over the years, Jeff (who is 62), did an enormous amount of charity work in our parish, driving around in this vehicle.  He often came to my parents house, to fix their car, or whatever.  When I moved to Perth we loaded my vestment sewing boxes into this van and took them to the freighters.  This van has transported the rich and the poor of the parish whenever there was need.  I actually cried when I saw it in this condition; it brought back many happy memories from the late 90's and reminded me of the goodness of the owner.

 

 

 

The reason why the insurers are hesitating to pay out is this: we had a drought here for almost 10 years.  The people were systematically indoctrinated with the fear of 'climate change' and how Australia would be a total dust bowl by say, 2050.  Important dignitaries would go out and find some piece of parched mud, and earnestly report on the advances of climate change.    The drought was very real, but it broke!  In fact, it broke soon after my mother died, and I often thought that my mum had sent the beautiful rain to this parched land.   My mother suffered much at the hands of the neuveau bourgoise,.    By March of 2010, the dams were filling rapidly, and we had 80% of the drinking water reserves in hand.  Young children experienced for the first time the joy of playing under a garden hose - a grave sin in former days. 

And yet the unthinkable happened.

The Government announced rather dourly, that we must continue to conserve water, because 'climate change' would see to it that there would be no water in future.  Nothing else was done or said.  We were never told to use as much water as we needed because the dams were filling too fast.

 

GROUND ZERO

 

By the Monday of 10th January, the Wivenhoe Dam (one of our four major dams) was dangerously full.  It came to just two feet from the three huge 'safety plugs' that  unceremoniously pop out of the dame wall once the water reaches that level.  When these safely plugs burst out of the wall, that section of the wall will crumble.  It effectively stops the entire, massive dam wall from disintegrating.  However, the Brisbane River was already bursting its banks, and we had torrential rain during those days.  The dam's five floodgates were opened out of desperation to get the water levels down; billions of megalitres of water were being disgorged into the already swollen river systems.  This caused a huge surge of water to come through Ipswich and Brisbane, which was supplemented by the freak flooding that came down the Darling Downs Mountain Range on Tuesday 11th January.  Severe flood warnings came out on Tuesday, and I, along with tens of thousands of office workers and other people such as British tourists, etc, had to flee the city. 

ABOVE:  view from my office window the morning of Tuesday, 11th January, 2011.  Visible is the Riverside Expressway, with the river dangerously encrounching on the city.

ALL IN A DAY'S WORK

It was still pelting with rain as I made my way down George Street to the Roma Street train station.  Finally,  an Ipswich train arrived and we surged onboard like a pack of sardines.  I was crushed in the throng until, glancing over my right shoulder, I suddenly espied a vacant seat! I pushed my way over to the seat and had a comfortable 1 hour journey out to Ipswich.  The Ipwich River had continued to rise during the morning, and I could see carparks underwater from the train window as we got closer to the city.  Thank God my car was parked in a carpark building high off the ground.  I drove immediately around to Bargain Box to see how they were faring, and then drove home.  The water was everywhere, and I was lucky to get my small car through one of the roads which had flooded slightly.  Just before reaching my town of Harrisville, I sat for an hour waiting for the causeway to go down.  My town is actually 'upstream' in the water catchment system, so it doesn't really flood too much here.  Deo Gratias! My sewing work can continue, and there is no risk of flood waters ever inundating this house.

RIGHT:  Peaceful Harrisville Cemetery the evening of January 11th.  While the flood waters wreaked havoc on Ipswich and Brisbane City, we had a lovely sunset.  My mother's grave Cross can be seen directly behind this headstone, to the right of it.

 

 

PLAYING LOOP THE LOOP..

So now the insurers seem to have a loophole not to pay. 

To wit, many of the business and homes were in flood prone areas, so they did not have flood insurance in the first place.  The new generation of city slickers paid no heed to the memory of the great flood of January, 1974, which was actually worse than this one.  And the avaricious property developers were certainly not going to worry about it.  In 2006, the Brisbane City Council offered a 'buy back' scheme on many of the properties in the flood zones, but very few owners took up the offer.  The idea of a flood seemed ludicrous.

 

WHAT GOD SEEMS TO THINKS OF THE SSPX

By a miracle, the sspx Catholic Church in Oxley was spared, even though the water came from both directions! This is something to consider - if the Society of St. Pius X is 'out' of the Catholic Church, then why is that church not being dug out of the mud, just like hundreds of homes in the immediate vicinity?  But this is not an advertisement for the sspx.  I do not attend Mass there all the time - I love the Byzantine Rite, and will go when able to the Ukrainian Rite, but there seemed to be a very strong element of the 'Dextera Domine fecit virtutem, dextera Domine exaltavit me' to all this.   Think about it.  The water literally came up to the sspx church building and was held back in a sort of Biblically symbolic 'arc' by the gravel in the parking lot.  I was just sorry I didn't have my camera when I made my way via the back streets over to Oxley to see what happened to the church.  The grass that had gone underwater was a muddy green, and was covered in a sludgy residue -  so with my practiced seamstress' eye, I could tell where the water had been, and where it had not been.  This residue stopped at the gravel and because of the shape of the driveway, the water formed a sort of semi-circular arc around the church at the time.  Incredible.   It goes without saying that the people that live in that street were very relieved, and I am sure they saw the Hand of God in the way they were protected. While the Australian Army and thousands of helpers and residents clean up their sodden properties, the sspx grounds have been freshly mown and the untouched presentation of the property sends a very strong message.

Many people I know have had their homes or business go underwater.

Thanks be to God and His Holy Mother, my Studio is in a safe zone, and work continues as normal. 

However, the suffering here is unimaginable.  Many suburbs resemble war zone, with the Australian Army and thousands of volunteers helping to remove the debris and mud caked residue that is on everything.  The stench is horrible!  Many sections of beautiful Brisbane City now look ugly and polluted.

God spared my home, but as you can imagine, the cost of living here will go up considerably.  I have already battled the economic crisis for two years, with SusanMaria.com surviving only by the Grace of God and Divine Providence.   There are numerous bills to pay, and ongoing running costs.  Very often I do not know how I will pay the rent, or buy food. Sales have been moderate in this past week, but this business is still going through a roller coaster ride of uncertainty due to the global economic crisis.

 

DEAR FRIENDS

who have watched this disaster unfold

 

IF YOU FEEL COMPELLED TO HELP QUEENSLANDERS

 

PLEASE CONSIDER MAKING A DONATION TO MY STUDIO.

 

My part time office job as a secretary is now in limbo - and I won't know for two weeks whether I will still have a job.    My department's building was flooded, and no-one can return until it is safe to do so. I have returned to the mainstream workforce in order to be able to make ends meet, as vestment sales have been very slow during the two year global economic 'shipwreck'.  It is quite worrying and sad to have commenced a great job on one day, only to have to flee the downtown the very next day, and not know what will happen next. 

Your money in the long term will go towards the rebuilding of the Catholic Sacristies of the entire world., rather than just materially helping people put luxurious couches, huge tvs and furniture back into their lives.  The government of Queensland is giving those affected cash grants, and many business are offering discounts on household goods.

Catholic Sacristies throughout the world suffered a far great catastrophe by the flood of change brought about by Vatican II, and this has never been so evident as now, 40 years later.

Your charity goes directly towards supporting one of the few Traditional Catholic Vestment houses of the world.  Every Mass brings down graces upon the world, graces to convert souls and assist them to gain the salvation of their souls.

If everyone who reads this would donate $10 each it would really help my vestment business navigate through the treacherous waters of economic setbacks and sail on to fairer shores.  Please foward this page link to everyone you know! Thank you.

If you do not wish to donate outright, please considering buying a set of vestments for your OWN PARISH!  Your money will support a Catholic business located right in the epicenter of this disaster, and at the same time will beautify your own Catholic church!

I particularly would recommend the beautiful semi-gothic European vestment set selling for a low $US499.

Thank you everyone for your ongoing prayers and support during this time of crisis.

God bless you!

 

 

SUSAN MARIA EVANS

BELOW: some flooding around Harrisville last week.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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