Ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred update: Madeleine West and Jesinta Franklin share moving messages as devastation hits
Madeleine West has shared a moving message with her followers as the devastation from Ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred continues.
The former Neighbours star – who is pregnant with her seventh child – lives with her six children in Byron Bay, and opened up about her “really rough few days” in a belated International Women’s Day message shared to her Instagram.
“Seeking shelter and anticipating that this could be a repeat of the #2020 floods. What would we be going home to? Would the house go under again? No power, a fridge full of spoiled food,” West, 45, wrote, emphasising her “fear”, “exhaustion” and “aching back from shifting valuables to safety”.
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“But everytime I felt the bottom lip drop, I remembered that so many women have it so so so much worse,” West’s message continued.
“This International Women’s Day there were no long lunches here. No purple balloons. No dressing up. No inspiring keynote addresses. Just an incredible coalition of women, and men, doing everything and anything they can to help each other.”
West then wrote about her gratitude for the “magical moments” amid the cyclone, which made landfall at 9pm on Saturday.
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Hundreds of thousands of Australians remain without power in south-east Queensland and northern New South Wales as Ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred moves inland, dumping heavy rain – the Bureau of Meteorology warned late last night intense rainfall leading to “life-threatening” flooding was expected to continue – and damaging wind gusts along its path.
West’s gratitude was in part for the “constant check-ins and uplifts with my amazing community of women” amid the natural disaster and the “laughter in the face of adversity, and witnessing Mother Nature show us who is boss”.
“Now we begin the clean up. There are so many women out there for whom #IWD doesn’t even touch the sides of their struggle… it is for them we need to do so much more than a long lunch,” West wrote.
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“For those women for whom this is just another day, for whom the celebrations are utterly inaccessible, and no one is floating purple balloons in their neighbourhood,” she continued.
“To those women for whom resilience is a necessity, not a choice, who need courage just to get out of bed, I want you to know you are seen. And we aren’t even scratching the surface of #equality while you are being left so far behind.
“Happy (belated) International Women’s Day to every woman of every flavour out there… I am a woman… you won’t hear me roar today, but I’m certainly up for rocking a red lip, a bright frock, and a weary smile ❤️”.
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Model Jesinta Franklin, who lives on the Gold Coast with former AFL star Lance ‘Buddy’ Franklin and their two children, also shared an update with her followers.
“We have honestly been so lucky. There is zero damage to our home, everyone we know and love is safe,” she wrote on her Instagram Story on Sunday morning.
”But that isn’t everyone’s reality and there’s a lot of damage to so many homes.”
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Franklin, however, also noted how she and several family and friends who had evacuated to her home were without power and water, writing, “No water now. I think we’re in for the long haul here. Last night’s weather seemed worse than what we’ve had the last few days.”
“The rain is so intense. Heavy and relentless. Check in on your mates… the clean-up is gonna be a big one.
“The positive about today – some shops are starting to open! So we can do a restock of essentials.”
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By Sunday evening, however, Franklin revealed she and her children had gone to a friend’s mother’s house to have a bath.
“Took the kids to my friend’s mum’s house so they could have a bath tonight,” she wrote on her Instagram Story on Sunday night.
“We’ve been using wet wipes since Thursday… community is such a beautiful thing during times like this.”
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