Home Town Under Water!!

I mentioned last post that my Mum, Dad and sort-of-sister Tiffy couldn't get down for their planned post-Christmas visit because of floodwaters cutting the roads in the Mundubbera area. Many Aussie gals have been watching the news, saw my home town mentioned in the evacuations and have emailed or texted, wondering if my folks were OK. What sweeties you all are! And YES, they're fine. Mum and Dad have a double-storey house that is almost at the top of one of the higher hills in Mundubbera, so they're not in any danger of getting their feet wet. They DID however send me some photos, cos I was having trouble imagining my home town under water, so I thought I'd share them ... I know a few blogging buddies have also visited my home town and would be interested. So ... have you got your FLOATIES ready?! :0)
Before I share the pics with you, Tiffy actually emailed them through to me ... my Mum is a bit of a techno-phobe and I'm pretty sure she doesn't even know how to turn the computer ON, let alone send photos! :0) Now, when Mum rang to check my email to say she was sending some photos through, my Beloved Geek Boy and I looked at each other a little sceptically ... like my Grandma, Mum has a bit of a track record of taking 'arty' photos ... you know ... the road where the parade WAS, the SKY above the bride and groom, the GARDEN where the puppy was playing ... you get the picture, right! Tee! Hee! Hee! When Tiffy emailed the photos, she prefaced them with a little message which said,
"These are the photos your Mum took of the flood waters. I left out the ones of the inside of the car and the door!"
Tee! Hee! Hee! Poor Mum! :0) OK ... enough giggles at Mum's expense and onto the photos. This one made my brother laugh ..

Don't know if you can read it well in the pic, but the sign says "Road Subject To Flooding". My brother's comment was ... "Road?!?!? WHAT road?!?!?" :0)

This shows some of the houses in the lower-lying part of town.

This is the end of the street my parents live in ... about three blocks away at the bottom of the hill.

Do you see that white house through the trees to the left? It's actually on one and a half storey high pilings! It gives a bit of an idea of just how deep some of the flood water is.

This photo was taken from the end of Mum and Dad's driveway, looking back down the hill at the water. This water isn't actually the river ... it's a usually-shallow gully that runs along the end of town. It filled with runoff from the heavy rains, then when the river rose, the water backed up into Red Gully, as it's known. My Dad has to drive down through Red Gully to get to work, so guess who won't be going into the office for a few days! :0)

This is the main bridge that you have to cross to get into Mundubbera from the Dalby/Jandowae/Durong direction. Trust me ... there's a bridge under there ... it's what looks like rough water towards the right of the photo. This pic was taken from the rest area/park near the visitor info centre on the riverbank, which currently boasts REALLY impressive river views ...

This roadway leads down to the riverside walkway which at the moment is ... err ... closed due to water on the path?!?! :0) The shed you can see to the right houses an old steam engine that used to be near the pool and I remember climbing all over it as a kid ... hmmm ... seems it missed it's water views of the pool! :0)

The barbecue in the same park ... what? No line-up??

So there you go, that's the Burnett River at Mundubbera. The water was due to peak last night, though locals thought that it had already reached its peak yesterday when these photos were taken. There is more water to come down from further north where there has also been some terrible flooding ... some entire towns have had to be evacuated and places like Chinchilla have seen the whole town under deep water ... but they don't think the river will get higher than it already has, so while around 20 homes had to be evacuated in Mundubbera from the Red Gully end of town and there will be a huge clean up and repair bill for roads etc, the town has been very fortunate compared to others. And although I'm a bit sad that I didn't get to catch up with Mum and Dad over this special time of year, I'm so grateful they weren't caught on the side of the road or stuck here and worrying about friends and neighbours ... in a small town, everyone knows each other. Last I heard, Dad was in a tinny (little aluminium dinghy type boat) helping retrieve items from houses that were in danger of going under water and Mum was making chicken soup and sandwiches for the SES volunteers and evacuated families. Australia really is a country of droughts and flooding rains ... but we wouldn't live anywhere else! :0) And tough times like this tend to see people band together to help each other - a silver lining to the rather persistent storm clouds! Our hearts do go out to everyone affected by the widespread flooding though ... how very hard it must be to walk away from your home, knowing that it will probably be swamped in rising floodwaters.

On the home front, the sun has finally peeked out today on top of our hill ... though it DID bring gale force winds with it ... and since the Aussie cricketers have managed to get themselves all out and lose the Ashes to England, I'm catching up on washing and about to watch a DVD and stitch some more on my Gardeners Journal blocks - my stitching has been MUCH more successful than the Aussie Ashes campaign! :0) So, thank you again to those lovely blogging buddies who were thinking of my folks and whatever you're doing as 2010 winds down, I hope you're safe and enjoying the comfort and company of family and friends. Til next time ...

BEAR HUGS!
CHEERS!
KRIS
PS. OPAMers ... don't forget to update your sidebar lists and/or email me or Peg with your December finishes ... last draw for 2010 ... what was your finally tally for the year?!?! BH! KRIS