Dancefloors destroyed, funeral home offers help

by Tanya Outridge

Carman McAuliffe of Burnside’s Sunshine Dance Centre woke to the distressing news that flood waters had breached her dance studio in the early hours of Monday morning.

“I didn’t realise we’d been flooded, so coming in and finding the studio in such a state was a terrible moment,” Carman said. “I am fortunate to have such an incredible student community who have been so supportive,” she said. “And we also have a wonderful landlord who had the power restored to the building by the end of the day on Monday, so we had lights to start cleaning.

“The dance floors are completely destroyed and they are going to have to be ripped out and replaced. There was a small carpeted area and we have removed the carpet already, as it smelt awful.”

Funding relief dead ends

Another complication for Carman has been accessing funding relief while the cleanup continues.

“Unfortunately, we are falling through cracks all over the place,” she said. “I fully understand that there have to be processes in place, to establish that people are genuinely in need, but we are finding it very difficult.

“We have to provide our financials from January 1, and this is an issue for us because we close through the school holidays, and I have no income to show for January. I have to lay off casual staff because we can’t hold classes and this is obviously not a good situation for them,” she said.

“My full time staff member spent hours on hold on the phone on Tuesday, trying to sort out one of the emergency payments, and ended up hanging up in frustration. We are following the instructions we are being given but finding dead ends everywhere.”

White Lady Funerals to the rescue

On a brighter note, Carman has also been overwhelmed with the kindness and generosity of the Nambour business community.

“White Lady Funerals have offered us the use of their refreshments room for dance classes, while there are no funerals in progress,” Carman said. 

“I told my students that one day we would look back with a smile about the times we had dancing lessons at the funeral home.”

Carman McAuliffe “I told my students that one day we would look back with a smile about the times we had dancing lessons at the funeral home.”