Tuesday, September 18

Part 2.

Part 1 here.

We heard that we were going to be cut off for a few days because of the rain upstream filling the river. I had to go to work, so planed to stay in town with friends and Tim would stay at home, stocked up on cous cous and baked beans - he could knuckle down into some serious PHD writing.
At lunch time on Sunday the sun was out, it had stopped raining. News spread fast from neighbor to neighbor that there was a meeting at the village hall at 5pm.
At the shabby North wagga hall we saw our various neighbors as well as my parents around the room plus a small news crew and the mayor.
A new peak of the river reaching over 10 metres was announced. Higher than the levee would hold - we had until dawn to be out otherwise we would be cut off and forcibly evacuated.
I still don't really recall the blur of the next few hours.
I just remember feeling so irritated at the whole situation. No I don't want to pack things up into boxes. I've only just finished unpacking boxes, there was no way I felt like wrapping up our plates in newspaper again.
Family friends arrived at our front door with their ute. They just jumped in and grabbed all our stuff. They did about 6 trips filling their ute with our possessions, taking it up to their shed on the hill, emptying and back again. They talked us in to packing the piano. I was going to leave it. I still didn't think it would happen - despite the frenzy all around me from people who had lived through the '74 flood.
We got in our car looked at each other and Tim asked me if I was sure we had everything. I just shrugged. Everything was up high on the kitchen benches, on top of wardrobes and bookshelves. He dashed back in and grabbed our favorite mugs. I hadn't packed up a single kitchen item, only pulled out drawers and put them on the kitchen table on the bench.
Our car was packed with computers, bedding, a bag of clothes each, a box of Lola's stuff, a very stressed out Lola and boxes of food from the fridge and we crossed the swirling dark brown Murrumbidgee at 9pm on Sunday.




2 comments:

  1. oh! how nerve wrecking to think it might happen again! I hope your little blue house stays safe and dry. my fingers are crossed for you!

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  2. Wow, so sorry to hear that Soph... that really sucks. Will be thinking of you over the coming week.
    Ronnie xo

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