The Rev. Les Nixon, who along with his wife Martha, has been running Outback Patrol, a high-flying ministry that takes the Gospel and aid to those living in Australia's outback, based in Sydney, Australia since 1960, has made an urgent prayer plea for the victims of the devastating floods that have been hitting parts of Australia, reports Dan Wooding, Founder of ASSIST Ministries. According to the Los Angeles Times, at least nine people were killed and dozens more remained missing after flash floods swept through the central shopping strip of the town of Toowoomba in rain-saturated Queensland state this week. “Meanwhile, a dam built to protect the capital city of Brisbane from similar disasters had filled to the point where authorities were forced to release large amounts of water to prevent it from collapsing. At least 6,500 properties were expected to be flooded and another 15,000 at least partially affected, said the story by Jennifer Bennett, reporting from Sydney for the Los Angeles Times (www.latimes.com). “With weather conditions remaining uncertain, 75% of this eastern Australian state has been declared a disaster area, and concerns continue to mount.” She went on to say, “In Toowoomba on Monday, nearly 6 inches of rain fell in 30 minutes on already saturated land, causing the Lockyer Creek to overflow its banks in a burst. “A wave of water crashed through the town, sweeping away cars, trees, buildings and dozens of people.” One man told ABC Television, “It was like a wall of water. … There was about seven or eight cars there, and just smashed them together,”. “And the last I saw of it was going down the creek bobbing up and down.” “Brisbane residents were evacuating Tuesday afternoon, with power and phone network failures, traffic and panic-buying in supermarkets adding to the stress many were feeling. By the afternoon, the waters of the Brisbane River had overflowed their banks,” she said. “In a rural area to the north, Andrew Grant, who runs camping and conference centers, said he was concerned about landslides as well as flooding.” “We've really had three days of just solid rain,” he said. Nixon, in a special message to supporters that was forwarded to the ASSIST News Service, said, “Sydney, where we live, is not hit by floods yet, and when they come, we are on high ground, but the hundreds of remote towns we serve inland are right in the path of the raging waters. “While the U.S. is in unusual snow storms, we are in summer floods. God is getting our attention. Godless Aussies are ignoring the message, but we are on the front line of witness. “Our people live on the massive rivers network of the Warrego, Baloone, Paroo, Condamine, Thompson, Moonie, Culgoa and Darling Rivers inland, a thousand miles inland feeding the coastal rivers which are now bloated with overflows from these, and deluging more townships.” He then pointed to what he called a “terrifying” You Tube video featuring the floods, adding, “It is heart stopping stuff.” You can see it at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-BEMTwh4hI “The capricious weather caught tens of thousands of people unawares,” Nixon went on to say. “A dozen lives have been lost and a hundred unaccounted for. A quarter of a million people abandoned homes and business as the waters raged into a hundred towns. The city of Brisbane has been shut down as the floods rise in the main streets. Churches are destroyed. “The inland river systems usually thousands miles of dry and dusty tracks and billabongs have become raging torrents as the warm ocean air is carried west inland, cooled at high altitudes and unseasonably dropped massive rainfalls where it only rains rarely. This has never but known in living history; but [it occurs] every couple of hundred years. “The floods cover the inland area almost the size of a dozen countries in western Europe.” He went on to say, “The same people outback we talked to in December with their Christmas Love Boxes, are now homeless. Our contacts in these places themselves are victims, so we've joined in a massive welfare war to 1) get them to safety and 2) to help slowly rebuild their townships. It will take years. Supplying evacuation centers is now our goal. “Meanwhile, chaplains, pastors and lay people are serving the grieving and hurt. We serve as liaison in contacts in remote towns. Schools will not open until this is over. Hospitals and doctors are overloaded with the tragedies. We have a huge mission in 2011 to help them, and bring the Gospel at the right time in the right way. Pray for us!”
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