Floods

We've just had a very exciting start to our week with torrential rain and damaging winds that caused some very extensive flooding... some say it was the worst flood our area has seen in 60 years!  Our town was completely cut off by rising flood water that peaked when the high tide forced even more water up the river.  Thankfully no houses were actually inundated and no one in our town was hurt, but sadly there were six deaths recorded in the region.

 

We lost power on Sunday evening after uprooted trees and falling branches took out a lot of the power lines in the district, and since we live in a rural area and collect our own water in tanks (cisterns) that are attached to electric pumps, we also lost running water to the house.  Our power was restored to us this afternoon at 4pm, 67 hours after it went off.

 

Needless to say, we're very thankful the flood water is starting to recede and that our family and friends are safe and well.  It's certainly been an eventful start to the year!

 

 

This is the river that runs alongside our little town.  The banks of the river are usually at the base of the trees.

 

The police sealed off the road when it got too deep for people to drive through.  This is the western exit from our town.

 

The bridge out of town.  The water you see in the foreground is supposed to be a paddock!  The river bank is supposed to be on the opposite side of the trees you can see at the right hand edge of the photo.

 

No primary school for two days!  The high school that our oldest daughter attends is closed until Monday.

 

This is the northern exit out of town.  What looks like a river on the left hand side of the photo is actually an access road.