Prayers for the folks around the Sydney area

Forester1

Well-known member
Evacuations due to heavy rains and flooding in the suburbs. Prayers that everyone is safe and can return home soon.
 
Much appreciated Forester.

Unfortunately for many of those people this is the third time this year that they have been flooded out.

The so-called "Once in a 100 year flood" has struck 3 times this year (so far)! The weather pattern at the centre of this, La Nina and the Indian Ocean Oscillation, is predicted to continue for several more months. So flood No.3 may not be the last in 2022.
 
Ouch. Lets hope something comes along to push that out.
I worked with a couple that bought a house on a golf course situated on a flood plain. A co-worker asked them if they were not concerned about flooding, but the response was "no, we're on the 500-year flood plain". My co-worker replied, "Well, every year is 500 years from sometime". Fortunately, the couple retired early and moved upstate, so it was never a worry.
 
Unfortunately for many of those people this is the third time this year that they have been flooded out.

The so-called "Once in a 100 year flood" has struck 3 times this year (so far)! The weather pattern at the centre of this, La Nina and the Indian Ocean Oscillation, is predicted to continue for several more months. So flood No.3 may not be the last in 2022.

It shows just how ineffective prayers are.
 
Wow. Thanks for making it a theological debate. I am sure the people of Sydney appreciate your kind wishes. I guess we can lock this thread, you've said it all.
 
Lord have mercy .

God bless and comfort those who are suffering due to the flooding. May God bring you light and comfort, as only He can.

Amen.
 
Wow. Thanks for making it a theological debate. I am sure the people of Sydney appreciate your kind wishes. I guess we can lock this thread, you've said it all.
The average Aussie isn't anywhere near as religious as the average American is Forester , many of us are a bit cynical about the use of this phrase as so many politicians throw it out as an automatic response and then do absolutely nothing to remedy the situation, here in oz we allocate 3% of the money we spend on flooding on mitigation , we need some action ,on climate and on relocating people who were allowed to build in flood prone areas or whose homes have been affected by overdevelopment that has now made them flood prone . We do appreciate your concern, but since under 50% of us identify as being religious , praying isn't seen as an automatic response to any disaster , as it is in your country, and even there the phrase can be seen as somthing of a cliche.
 
Very well put Dangavel.

Imho, some Americans have become way to hypocritical. A bible in one hand, and a gun in the other.

Regards Claus
 
Getting back onto flood matters. I have just been reading a report of a family that moved into their home 12 months ago and yesterday were evacuated from that home for the 4th time due to floods.

Others in those regions are still recovering from the devastating bush fires that swept through the country Dec 2019 to Jan 2020, then to be locked down by Covid-19, followed by the floods that started 2021 and continue today. Australians consider themselves to be living in "The Lucky Country" but that luck has been severely tested these last few years.

Serious questions are being asked about housing development in "flood-prone" areas, bush fire zones and what exactly does the expression "once in 100 year flood" really mean?

Australia spends a huge quantity of taxpayer money on disaster relief to recover from floods, bush fires, drought, cyclones - fortunately earthquakes and tornados are not a significant danger here. Perhaps more of that money should be directed towards prevention including relocating towns and communities to safer ground. Several towns in recent months have suffered their first ever recorded floods. Official recorded history only goes back 200 years or less but local indigenous stories, passed down by word of mouth or song, go back much further and sometimes tell a different story. Perhaps we should have been paying more attention?

My thoughts.
 
I've just learned of the floods in Australia. I hope all goes well for the Australians, and I hope that we can start to focus more on these natural disasters, with them becoming more severe. I send my prayers out to you all. (Now, if you don't share the same faith in God that I do, then that's quite alright. I just hope all goes well regardless of what one's beliefs are.)
 
Imho, some Americans have become way to hypocritical. A bible in one hand, and a gun in the other.

Regards Claus

Imho, those "who have a Bible in one hand and a gun in the other" are not the ones who perpetrate the gun violence. It is for protection. If we didn't "have a gun in one hand" we would have never been able to gain our independence , help other countries in distress, free slaves and other noble tasks. God bless.
 
Imho, those "who have a Bible in one hand and a gun in the other" are not the ones who perpetrate the gun violence. It is for protection. If we didn't "have a gun in one hand" we would have never been able to gain our independence , help other countries in distress, free slaves and other noble tasks. God bless.

Amen to that :eek:.
 
Imho, those "who have a Bible in one hand and a gun in the other" are not the ones who perpetrate the gun violence. It is for protection. If we didn't "have a gun in one hand" we would have never been able to gain our independence , help other countries in distress, free slaves and other noble tasks. God bless.
Hmm , you mention the positives ( and some of those are debatable) , but you skip all the negatives, the decimation of native people for a start, of which both the USA and Australia are guilty of doing and in which guns and bibles often played a major role.
Your most recent gun massacre is a point in mind, offering any condolences over that seems pointless, it is another avoidable tragedy , here in oz we seem to have curbed our gun related massacres, in the case of the Us, there's no sign of a solution. Regrettably, religion and violence often accompany each other, we've seen various far right killings where the perpetrator had a racial and Christian religious agenda.
This really isn't a forum to discuss this , but if you're going to put forward contentious views, I'm not going to leave them unchallenged. The world is full of hate and division, let's leave discussing that to other forums and get on with train talk here instead as we arent going to solve those issues , just create more resentment .
 
Very well put Dangavel. When I first read the statement "Bible in one hand and a gun in the other" in this thread I was horrified on so many levels that I initially hesitated to respond.

I note that in the USA the second biggest single cause of childhood and adolescent deaths is guns - car crashes being the first with the chief cause being inattention by drivers and pedestrians. Here in Australia you would have to look long and hard to find a single childhood or adolescent death caused by guns. Clearly, the "guns for protection" argument is false.
 
I was going to say something in defense of pware and dangavel, even as an American (albeit too young to own a weapon, but never will), but I do not want to upset people. I do hope that we can leave our own political and theological beliefs out of these forums. I hope that the Australians will be able to recover from this disaster, and that they will be able to learn from this and prepare for these disasters. Now, let's use these forums for what their purpose is, and let's talk Trainz. Not violence.

If this upsets people, I will remove this post so that nobody else becomes upset.
 
Making incredibly slow progress on a number of Trainz routes and an LBSCR L Class. They'll come out... one day!

I know the feeling. My current project began in Trainz 2004 so it is still a teenager. It has had "update" releases for TRS12 and more recently for TRS19. The current update for TRS22 involves all PBR textures, a new 81km extension and the reworking of the terrain and scenery for an existing 137km (so that is effectively new as well). It will also come out "real soon(TM)".
 
Back on topic, pictures on TV look pretty bad, 2ft of rain in a couple of days is unimaginable and third time in 18 months or thereabouts must be getting hard for people to put up with the same nightmare repeatedly.
 
must be getting hard for people to put up with the same nightmare repeatedly.

I would move out after the second inundation, but some are now suffering their 4th in the last two years. Fortunately, I am on high ground in one of the highest areas of Sydney and well above the level of the local creeks.

For many of these people flood insurance is either not available or prohibitively expensive ($AU10,000 and more in premiums each year). Places along the several rivers that flow through and around Sydney expect and often get some minor flooding each year with little or no property damage.

About 70% of the floods along the major river that runs west and north of Sydney are caused by overflows from the main water storage dam for Sydney. The areas along this river that are flood affected are mostly agricultural (vegetable and turf farms, some livestock, etc but very few houses) so the annual or semi-annual floods are not a problem. But these last few years has seen a change to major flooding that has inundated residential areas that are above the normal flood plain. The once in one hundred year flood is now an annual or more frequent event. In places the river has now changed its course with some agricultural land disappearing.

A brand new road bridge over that river that was claimed to be "flood-proof" went underwater in one of the floods this year. It was supposed to prevent the common problem of communities on one side of the river being cut off from the rest of Sydney by the annual floods but that was exposed as false in another flood this year when the bridge stayed above the flood waters but the approach roads were fully submerged. Great design work there!

There are several smaller rivers that flow through Sydney and the residents that live nearby but above the flood levels have found their homes flooded, sometimes repeatedly, in the last two years.

What are the causes? Well there are many possibilities from Climate Change to excessive land clearance (fewer trees to soak up the water in the soil) to greedy developers and local councils building residential estates on areas that were not suitable.
 
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Imho, those "who have a Bible in one hand and a gun in the other" are not the ones who perpetrate the gun violence. It is for protection. If we didn't "have a gun in one hand" we would have never been able to gain our independence , help other countries in distress, free slaves and other noble tasks. God bless.

While what you said is true, when you put the guns into the hands of those who do no good to society, you end up with what happened on the 4th of July, Uvalde, etc. etc. Not really protection, more like a weapon of mass murder if used wrongly. IMHO guns are to be used only during conflicts involving the armed forces and hunters with a proper hunting license, not someone who can destroy the lives of people in several seconds.

As for the situation in Australia, I feel that these floods will bring more attention to the climate change happening around the world and in Australia. Hopefully things will turn out for the better :)
 
I opened this thread for one reason, and that was to offer a prayer as requested. I didn't mention guns at all but somehow, that left the door open for a snipe at Christian gun owners .

Again, my point is that people who commit these mass murders are not " bible in one hand and gun in the other" types of people. I'm not going to let that go unchallenged. I don't recall one case that states any of the shooters were practicing , prayerful Christians. I'll debate the US Second Amendment and Christian gun owners somewhere else, but not here.
 
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