Water, Water Everywhere

So after my last post, I was back to work after being off for 5 weeks on holiday.  I was struggling to get back in the groove especially since there's now a ridiculous amount of work in my role - we had some organisational restructuring during the year and I'm now doing what was previously the work of 2 people - and add to that our turnover has gone through the roof and you can guess the impact on me.

Anyway around Thursday it started to rain.... and rain and Friday it was still raining.  We live by the side of a river which takes the overflow from a nearby dam.  On Thursday night it was 0.6m below the spillway.  By Friday morning it was 0.3m above the spillway and just kept on rising.  Meanwhile it continued to rain.  And the river is tidal.

See where I'm going - it's coming out of the sky, down the river from the dam and up the river from the tide and our house is the lowest point in the street.  We've never been flooded before but did know that we were listed on the 1:100 year flood plan.

Saturday morning at 6am we were wakened by police doorknocking, warning us the river was rising and that high tide was at 9am.  We leapt into action.  Fortunately we live in a high set house so downstairs is a bedroom/games room, laundry, and bathroom and they are all now tiled.  We have a large pool table so we piled as much as we possibly could on that and brought everything else up the stairs.

We survived the 9am high tide but went ahead and prepared bags ready to evacuate as meanwhile the dam level continued to increase.  Now about 4.5m over the spillway.  Around lunchtime we had some really heavy rainfall which caused damp patches on our bedroom ceiling and had water seeping into the downstairs room as the downpipe couldn't cope.

In the afternoon we went to our next door neighbours annual Australia day BBQ and noted that after coming up for high tide the water didn't drop real much for low tide.  Not a good sign.  Nightfall came and with it another high tide of 3.5m around 9pm.  We watched and waited anxiously ready to jump in the car and go if we had to - we'd already taken my car to higher ground.  Once again we survived the high tide but not by much.  Then just shortly after we were again visited by the local constabulary and told we had to compulsorily evacuate.  They were expecting much more water over the dam wall during the night.  By this time the dam was 8.3m over the spillway.

So bags and dog in the car and off to our friends Deb and Ian who also live locally but on much higher ground.  We could have gone to Grant and Tiff's - but they're in town (19km) away and the bridge we have to cross to get there was almost certain to be closed and then we'd have been stuck with no way back onto the island and unable to keep an eye on what was happening to the house.

At 1.30am we got a text message warning everyone to be out of low lying areas as they were doing a controlled release from the dam - this was in addition to what was gushing over the spillway so a serious amount of water rushing down the river.  Merlin slept in Bloss's car overnight - so at 6am I went down to take him to the toilet and decided we'd walk round to our place.  Craig caught up with me in the car just as I got to our street.  We couldn't actually see our house as the whole street was flooded and had been blocked off by the SES

Our neighbours getting their boat at 6am Sunday morning

Someone in a boat helping people get medication.  Our house is just round from the palm trees you can see

Our next door neighbour's house

Our neighbours who had retrieved their boat could tell us the water hadn't quite reached the house but it was still about 4 hours to a high tide of 4.3m.  Nothing more we could do so we left and checked out the damage elsewhere.  Many many boats were either lost or badly damaged - our river is a popular place to moor your boat and many owners weren't able to reach them in time to do anything to save them from the raging water - which of course had all sorts of debris - logs, barrels and even a shed!

About 3pm which was after high tide we went back and this time were able to walk along the street and actually see the front of the house.  The SES didn't want us to cross the road to see at first hand the damage but then we were able to sneak along the other side of the road and slip in without them seeing.  By this time of course the water levels had dropped considerably but we could see that the whole of our ground floor had been under 300mm (12 inches) of water by the tidemarks left.  We left then as there was still the expectation that it would re-flood with the next high tide.

Looking out from our carport at low tide Sunday afternoon

Our house from over the road on Sunday afternoon

I'd planned to work on Monday and have a day in lieu - and I figured I might as well stick to that plan as we probably wouldn't be able to get to the house.  However I thought I'd just have a quick zap by the house on my way to work and lo and behold the water had gone right down and the street had been re-opened.  So back to get Craig out of bed and into operation clean up.  Both Deb and Ian as well as Deb's son Brandon and his girlfriend Kaytie came round to help then later another couple of friends Lex and Nola.  This is when you are so truly humbled by the power of friendship.  By midday it had all been cleaned up.

The flood level 

Our poor pool

The games room floor 

The laundry

The slimy slippery silt left on the driveway and carport

Our front door and the shed

Looking down the driveway after I had hosed it all

Fairies at work

All clean

Another fairy at work

It's doubtful if we'll get any insurance coverage - there's a distinction in coverage between flash flood damage and river overflow - we're covered for the first but not the second.  The assessor came this morning so we'll just have to wait and see what eventuates - but it could all have been so much worse.

This all kind of messed a bit with my good eating habits - I was down 1.1kgs on Saturday but then it flipped up a bit by Tuesday when I finally got home and by today I'm down 0.7kg - which is OK and I'll just keep working on it.

Back next week xx