There's a flood in Australia 2

Contrary to my previous post where I wrote some maybe stupid things... instead of going back and changing my post I thought would just leave it there and write a bit more about my feelings about the floods in Australia. It's hard for me to see the latest news since I'm not in the country and I very very very rarely watch tv (and when I do it's not the time for news) so I'm a bit 'out of it' however I have watched a few videos on various news websites and it is just utterly devastating and catastrophic.

A few of my colleagues have asked if my family live in the region and luckily they don't but I do have at least one friend who does and many friends of friends who do...

I was living in Shanghai when the May 2008 Sichuan earthquake struck (in fact, I even FELT it all those kilometres away) and I was bombarded by the media with the devastation. I was just heartbroken for those poor people who died and for their families. I guess it's easier to help when you are in the same country as you are more affected...

The closest I've come to a natural disaster was during the January 1994 Sydney bushfires. The closest one of the fires came was about 1km to our house/street (which is pretty close when you think about it). It scared the absolute crap out of me, the thought we were going to lose our house and everything in it. and being an asthmatic it's doubly scary as I could have easily died just breathing in the smoke... but enough about that.

Of course more recently there were the January 2010 Haiti earthquakes...

I thank my lucky stars and the Gods above that I have never been personally affected by these horrific natural disasters. During big disasters like this, I usually go to my local bank (where they've set up an appeal) or donate online. It's the least one can do when one can not be there to physically help. Every little bit helps.

If you'd like to help you can donate to the floods appeal here to help those who have lost everything in the Queensland Australia floods.

News Report in French
News report in English
Amazing interactive Before/After photos


Vocabulary: 
a flood: une inondation
an appeal: un appel
a donation: un don
a disaster: un désastre / une catastrophe
an evacuation: une évacuation 
a warning: une avertissement 
to warn: avertir 


(image from here).