Brisbane, Queensland — We have just come from helping two of our members move their furniture and belongings to a safe place before the anticipated floods arrived. It was two years ago that these same two lost most of what they owned to the February 2011 floods. Those floods were more severe and more of our members were affected. The loss was enormous for the general population, including damage to their homes. This time, a lot of prevention went into prevention-planning and much of the damage was averted.

Those living in the Bundaberg, Queensland, area were more affected by the floods this time. Two or our members there had water in their homes and had to be evacuated. Tropical storm Oswald tracked down the coast from northern Queensland and dropped large amounts of rain all down the coast to Sydney. Floods are now occurring along coastal areas in New South Wales and the same story is told there—flooded homes and people evacuating. Until now four people have died in the weather. One tragic incident was when a family went to the edge of a swollen creek to see the extent of the flood in their area, and a tree fell on them and killed their three-year old son. Trees are down everywhere due to the water-soaked ground and high winds.

Most of the towns and cities along the coast have flooded or will flood due to the large catchment areas to the west, which are drained by rivers and creeks that flow in to one major outlet where these towns and cities are built. Sometimes it takes days after the major rain for the flood to peak in these vulnerable areas. Since these areas are near the coast, a high tide or a storm surge could make the situation doubly worse.

These kinds of floods used to be a fifty-year event—now we have had two in two years. The weather patterns are undoubtedly more extreme and anytime we have a cyclone or tropical storm moving near the coast, we can expect floods somewhere.

In the southern part of Australia we have been experiencing bush fires that have been particularly destructive to homes, property and livestock. It is a place of extremes and the changing weather patterns create even more extremes. As the population grows and we choose to live in flood-prone areas, the greater the damage. Jesus Christ must have known the loss of life and livelihood would be greater in the end time because of enormous population growth when he prophesied of “tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world to this time…” --Bill Bradford, UCG Pastor of Brisbane congregation.