We're all exhausted after another day of cleaning up our apartment building. With it being a Saturday, Christine was not working at the City Council and so came to help as well. So did our friends Anj, Sam, Kevin, Bryan and Charl. And a whole lot of friends of other residents. And a whole bunch of complete strangers. All in all there were about 100 or more people working today. It was incredible how everyone dived right in and worked so hard.
Besides the people working inside there were also volunteers with machinery clearing the outside areas and the road of mud and dumped goods.
Today we got the upper-level garages looking a bit cleaner, ripped out carpets in the pool room and other common areas, and cleared out and washed the lower level garages. The amount of peoples' goods that is being dumped is unbelievable.
It's amazing that there haven't been any major injuries.With so many people working in a confined space, walking of slimy mud; Carrying heavy boxes and furniture; The floor littered with broken glass, tiles, sharp pieces of metal and nails; Brooms, rakes, spades and wheelbarrows lying all over the places and being moved around constantly; And all this in in almost complete darkness (except for when someone comes along with a headlamp or lantern) because the power is out.
I'm starting to look a little worse for wear, with cuts and scrapes and blisters. And working in this festering sludge is not good for that. I really need to get some close shoes at least. I'm also starting to feel rather stiff.
There is still a long way to go. The clean up will take months, and the rebuilding of Brisbane's facilities will take years.
More pictures from today are up on our online album.
Tomorrow is another day.
Goodnight.
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