Flash Floods

[graylyn]

Farmer6, I believe you got another big downpour last night?

[Tracey family]

Thanks for thinking of me! I take it Narromine is not under any threat?

Hi Duchess,

The river has flooded but it would take a fair bit more water to threaten the town thanks to the levie bank. I've been driving down for a look regularly and the Macquarie is still rising pretty rapidly. At this stage they think it won't peak until at least Sunday (upgraded from Friday) Problem is that Burrendong is at 146% still rising and it's not designed to hold those levels so they are still releasing a lot of water. Poor Warren will be in trouble.

Luke was supposed to work this morning in Dubbo but they closed the shop due to flooding. Many of the shops on the river side of the main st were flooded and there are roads closed all over the place. Took me an hour to get home from Dubbo yesterday (usually a 25min trip) mid afternoon and took Luke 1.5 hours to get to work this morning.

I heard Wee Waa is now cut off??? Hope you guys are doing ok.

Glenyse

[Hairs]

A mate, Dave from Broken Hill sent me this picture today of the Birdsville Track.

Amazing stuff. Where this is along it I don't know.

[farmer6]

Hi graylyn. We were lucky we haven't had any rain since yesterday morning. I finally got down to the river this afternoon and tipped 200 mm out of the rain gauge there. The Comet River is still rising and come over our southern levy about lunch time.

This is one of our pumps yesterday afternoon running to clear run off water.



And this is the same pump at lunch time today after the water started coming in. Or at least the top inch of the exhaust.

[Duchess]

Ah, farmer6...are you going to be able to resurrect that pump once the water has gone down??

We're still here, haven't floated away yet.

Not sure where the water is at. Still minor flooding but I'm not sure how much that will cut us off from the rest of you lot. 

Yes, Pauly, there's something kind of wrong about the priority being information and not food for our nation...

Spare a thought friends of those who've lost entire crops...especially when you are buying your bread and you're having to pay 10 bucks a loaf for it! (could happen yet)

[SteveandViv]

We owned a house in Gundagai a few years ago. It was down by the river in a small flat across the bridge as you pass through town. We wanted to use it a collateral for another house and the bank said nope, it's in a 1 100 year flood zone, we laughed argued and all that. Eventually we had a cash offer for the place and sold it. Well glad we did. It's under water now...

Hope every one is OK troubled by the floods though

[farmer6]

Duchess I think we may need some wd 40.

Steve, after the 2008 floods we were told it was a 1 in 1000 year flood by the experts. " Never happen again in our lifetime". We are at 1.5 to 2 metres above the 2008 levels and rising on the Comet. At daylight we are going to try to remove another of our bigger diesel motors that drives our flood lift pumps but Im not sure how it will go.

There are some real bad stories starting to get around from some properties along the Comet River. The news footage from down south is not good, the poor buggers with the loss of houses or water thru there houses. Im starting to get fairly concerned about weather the house levies will hold here. Our upstream neighbour on the Nogoa River side is a coal mine and from the chatter on the UHF and the lights on the over burden piles they are moving the draglines to higher ground.

I wanted to make sure I had switched all the electrics off at our main pump controllers for our electric pumps in the river so I walked in the river to cheak. This photo was taken at about lunchtime yesterday. Im standing on the road we drive in on, which is the top bank of the River. Where I was standing is normally about 15 metres above the 'normal' river level. I just went down the cheak levels now and if I tried walking it now it would be up to my neck already.




A very worried farmer6

[speewa158]

Is there any body left to keep us up dated us on the rising merk  in NSW or have they all gone under  , hope not  post up

[Tracey family]

Righto speewa as requested.

The river level at Narromine is still rising - expected to peak at 13.7 m tonight but more rain on the way. Burrendong dam is currently releasing 120000 ML per day. The water level is below the levie that was built up after the 1990 floods so the town is pretty safe but lots of outlying areas are under water. Most of our farmers haven't even started harvest so the poor buggers are devastated.

The main shopping area of Dubbo is in chaos. Shops on the river side of the street have had there lower storage rooms go under. My young fella works in Dubbo and came home early at about 11am just made it through before they closed the road. We can head west or south from Narromine but can't get out of town north or east (Dubbo is east from us).

Local news reports that Coonamble is in major trouble and that the situation at Wee Waa is worsening (Duchess may have more on that). North Wagga has been evacuated and I assume that Warren will be struggling big time as they are downstream and lower than us.

That's my report - all second hand except for the Narromine details so hopefully someone will come along and let us know what's happening in other areas.

Glenyse

[Duchess]

It's ok here folks...my rescue equipment arrived this afternoon and now resides in my neighbours front yard...perfect for a quick evac if needed...



This is my friend/former employer's machine and his crew are here, working for another local company. Tomorrow all the staff will be flown to the airstrip in this machine as the roads are cut to the airstrip.

We're now slated for a major flood peak by tomorrow night. I think that they weren't going to close the road till then but it now sounds as if they have. Which is going to really screw up the week as tomorrow alone we've got at least 4 delivery trucks due in town. Hopefully, they'll allow the trucks through (as they've got the clearance over a car or 4wd.)

This is already a bit of a bad week for us but well, things can only go up from here I guess. One thing is for sure, we're surrounded by friends and those I consider family and I know because of that, we'll be kept safe and well looked after if things really go to s**t!

[bullfrog]

No wonder ya won't answer ya phone, hob nobbin' round in some flash 'chopper  .  All quiet here on the Clarence, bit of colour but nothing out of the ordinary. Some say we might get a cracker if the rain doesn't bugga off for new year. Hope all goes well for you, will try & call later in the week. Be good, stay safe.

[speewa158]

Tracey Family , Duccess  & other readers  hang in there guys . Stay safe , all of you

[bullfrog]

x2 Jamie, growing in an area that is prone to floods ( & big ones) gives you a good appreciation for the power of water. No flood is a good flood. Upstream of Grafton at a little place called Tabulam, they talk about flood heights of 70'- 90' above normal river levels. That's a LOT of water. Hope all come out of the big wet OK with minimal damage & losses.  Bevan.

[speewa158]

The early news tell us that there is bad batch of weather on the way  on Thursday & Friday . Another 100mm to top off the current flood levels through . Be safe out there Swaggers

[Duchess]

If you're hearing on the news that the SES has told Wee Waa to evacuate, then they did but we're not. The first message that was texted and then phoned through this morning basically told us all to "prepare" to evacuate now. Most people interpreted that as "evacuate now"! Talk about a wave of disbelief and panic going through the town today!

Anyway, they've just sent another message saying that we should prepare to, if this next rain comes and that the first message was not an evac order, as much as it read like one! Considering my house is up 12feet off the ground, if the flood is that bad, then we're all in serious trouble!  I will be choosing to stay if it comes to that!

Meanwhile, the river is steady at the moderate flood height and the water isn't even anywhere near the levy bank at the back of my house. I'm not worried!

[Tracey family]

Glad you're safe Duchess. I've been thinking of you.

The expected peak here keeps going up and up. From 11m on Friday to 14m this afternoon but town itself is safe. One of the kids I look after came into town by boat this morning. She showed me some photos and north of here is just one big lake. A lot of the houses out that way have levies built around them so there are lots of little islands.

Glad you have a 12ft safety margin but Scott wants to know were your trailer is! 

[DANBRI]

What happens in floods? Do folks with boats just pack all their belongings into it, make sure the bilge pumps are working and wait it out?

That would be my inexperienced plan.

[Pauly]

Does anybody know all the river systems that are in flood. I know others have more pressing issues but im trying to work out if the Macleay will be effected over christmas.

 

[dlowen]

Hi to all of you who are affected by the floods.  Ive been following this thread & hoping everyone's OK.  Coming from South Aust. we're so not accustomed to the levels of rain you guys are having, after coping with the drought for the last 10 or so years.  I guess we know about the drought, but not the floods - you've got a double whammy!!  I feel for all you farmers who've coped with both.
As I'm writing this we're about to have a big (for us) thunderstorm; we seem to be having them daily for the last week.  It's also very humid, more like Qld weather than southern dry heat.

Anyway, keep dry, & there's a lot of people thinking of you & how you're doing!

dlo

[Tracey family]

Hi Pauly,

Here is the bureau of meteorology link that I've been using to follow our river height. I've linked the page for the Macleay.

http://www.bom.gov.au/cgi-bin/wrap_fwo.pl?IDN60141.html

Glenyse

[SteveandViv]

If you're hearing on the news that the SES has told Wee Waa to evacuate, then they did but we're not. The first message that was texted and then phoned through this morning basically told us all to "prepare" to evacuate now. Most people interpreted that as "evacuate now"! Talk about a wave of disbelief and panic going through the town today!

Anyway, they've just sent another message saying that we should prepare to, if this next rain comes and that the first message was not an evac order, as much as it read like one! Considering my house is up 12feet off the ground, if the flood is that bad, then we're all in serious trouble!  I will be choosing to stay if it comes to that!

Meanwhile, the river is steady at the moderate flood height and the water isn't even anywhere near the levy bank at the back of my house. I'm not worried!

I see from the bOM you Major and steady.. You be careful. Water can wash you away all to quick....

[xmasbaby67]

Glad to hear everyone is still OK. 

Glenyse we used to live in Narromine and were there when the flood hit in 1990.  We used to live in the bank house in Dandaloo street next to the doctors surgery down the Bowling club end and we stayed up on top of the bank residence during the flood.  Great little town.

If I remember rightly poor Nyngan really copped it and my hubby had to go out and help with the bank clean up.  It was the mud that was left over that was the worst bit of the clean up.

Hope this next lot of rain doesnt do too much more damage.  Fingers crossed for everyone.

[Pauly]

Thanks for that.

I have friends doing up a house at wellington and they were thinking of going up there so that page will help them.

As bad as these floods are for those in them at least its the end of the draught for many and for the farmers land this muddy water has some good neutrents for the soil, thats why flood plains are so good for farming. Got to look on the brightside I guess.

[Duchess]

Glad you have a 12ft safety margin but Scott wants to know were your trailer is! 

At the moment, under the house. If it was to be that much of a problem, we'd go and get everything up onto the levy bank which is in my back yard. If the water was going to breach the levy, I don't think it would be at this point but somewhere further down where it has more pressure against it.

Yes, the next rain event has a lot of people concerned. Personally, I'm just here for the ride...

[ferret]

Ouch !!!!!! :'(