Tuesday...18 January 2011

Ok, so you did not cross your fingers did you?
Went to bed at 1.30am, all was dry. At 4.30am the son-in-law woke us by banging loudly on the door of our caravan to say that the shed next to us was full of water and guess who was gonna be next? Yep by 6.00am there was water under and around the caravan and we needed to head for drier land. The water was advancing at a reasonable rate. No way was the water deep enough to enter the Loftus Caravan of the Century but access was becoming limited. Of course when you need it most the battery in the camera was dead! The boys moved the valuable stuff in the sheds to higher benches etc (stuff like the MIG welder, good tools, etc). Son-in-law rang the bloke he works for to bring in an excavator and they built a small levee bank at the back of our property to divert the water. That seems to have done the trick. While we were waiting for that to arrive, we were sandbagging our own place, bit of a change after sandbagging the neighbours all day yesterday...
The water levels have lowered and I can access the van again but as I type this I can see the paddock behind the house (with the new levee bank in it) and it is still full of water.
Listening to the local radio, it would seem the town of Horsham,  that we are about 3km outside of, is split in two by the flooding of the Wimmera River. The CBD has water in it causing some concern to the local business people, and about 500 houses in town have water in them or advancing toward them.
Out here in the 5acre hobby farm area which used to be the original irrigation district of the area, houses are flooded, people are isolated and the local SES and other emergency services do not want to know us as they are too busy with the thousands of people in the town itself. Unfortunately we did have five houses go under out here, despite a mighty effort by the locals who all pitched in to help each other.
The constant sound of planes and helicopters both from the media and the authorities checking the state of the river and the flooding around us is background noise along with the sound of tractors as people work into the night to sandbag their houses or move their stock to higher ground or just help their neighbours.


The road into town!

 Meals are becoming interesting as we attempt to feed our own starving masses with limited food choices. We have food, just need to be creative with it to make it last while we wait to be able to go to town again which is not likely for the next couple of days. Meal times are also extemely flexible as we eat when the men come home from helping neighbours and last night tea was at midnight. (Breakfast today was 5.00am)