By Jill Gralow
GHINNI GHINNI, Australia (Reuters) -Farmer Mark Kappa was enjoying his first hot drink in three days as he waited patiently for his meal in front of a food truck run by a Sikh charity, after incessant rain in Australia’s southeast cut off towns and forced thousands to evacuate their homes.
Melbourne-based Sikh Volunteers Australia travelled nearly 1,200 km (746 miles) to the rural town of Taree in New South Wales, one of the worst-hit from last week’s floods in Australia’s most populous state, to set up their mobile kitchen in the parking area of a hardware store.
“They said about 20 minutes or so, I’ll tuck in then,” Kappa said as the volunteers prepared pasta, rice and vegetarian curry.
More than 50,000 people in the Hunter and Mid North coast regions of New South Wales, around 300 km (186 miles) north of Sydney, were isolated last week after fast-rising waters burst river banks, destroyed homes and washed away roads.
Five deaths have been linked to the floods.
“We’ve had no power for three days out at the farm. We lost our milk. We lost everything,” Kappa said.
After serving almost 3,000 fresh meals over the last three days, Sikh Volunteers Australia head Jaswinder Singh said: “In times of disasters, I’ve seen the spirit of the Australians come even better, closer to each other … so that’s a good thing. That has a very positive impact.”
Despite the small space available, the charity has been distributing food neatly packed in small boxes.
“To be able to know that you can turn up and just get some food is – it’s just heart-warming,” said Ashari Hudson, who was picking up food for a friend hit by floods.
The Sikh volunteers have provided free food since 2017 during several crises, including bush fires and floods.
Australia has been hit with increasing extreme weather events that some experts say are the result of climate change. Following droughts and devastating bushfires at the end of last decade, frequent floods have wreaked havoc since early 2021.
(Reporting by Jill Gralow in Ghinni Ghinni; Writing by Renju Jose; Editing by Sonali Paul)
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