STORM-ravaged St Peter Chanel School at The Gap in Brisbane’s north-west has found a spiritual silver lining in the midst of disaster.
The school’s assistant principal for religious education Neil Collins said a prayer assembly last Monday was told that the disaster gave the opportunity to see God in other people as they helped each other out.
Schools across the archdiocese have related similar positive experiences as support flooded in from the community and Church agencies.
Principal of St Andrew’s School, Ferny Grove, John Leyden described the work done by Catholic Church Insurances (CCI) to get the school up and running again as “brilliant”.
“We rang CCI on the Monday after the big storm and within two hours, workers arrived with big fans to help dry out sodden classrooms,” Mr Leyden said.
“Eight of the school’s nineteen classrooms were damaged but they’re all operational now.”
At nearby All Saints Primary School, Albany Creek, principal Stephen Montgomery said he had been appreciative of other Catholic schools who had banded together to provide groundsman-time to storm-battered schools.
Elsewhere across the archdiocese, schools as far as Ipswich reported impacts of varying degrees from Brisbane’s wild storms in recent weeks.
St Brigid’s Primary School, Rosewood, closed for two days while affected high schools were forced to re-open for Year 12 graduation ceremonies on November 22.
St Peter Claver College, Riverview, told families to keep students home on November 20 due to local road closures and flooding rivers.
Immaculate Heart Primary School, Leichardt, sent children home on November 20 when rising flood waters threatened to cut the school off at the One Mile bridge crossing.
Regional areas were affected, with staff and students at St Monica’s, Oakey, enduring one disrupted day when drains failed to cope with flooding.
Mary Immaculate Church, Blackwater, copped several broken windows and two damaged louvres after it was hit by hail the size of “huge rocks”.
Meanwhile, the St Vincent de Paul Society in Queensland last week announced the launch of its Storm Damage Appeal to help raise funds for the hundreds of families affected by the recent devastating storms.
