I thought that things would ease up by Wednesday, but I don’t think thats really the case anymore.
When we woke up this morning, a glance out the window showed that we had a bit of a landslip across the other side (ie not our property, and not any danger to our house) of the gully through which our backyard creek runs
About 9:30 this morning it got really, really dark, and thats always a bad sign!
Then the heavens let loose – it bucketed down.
Its almost 4PM and we’ve had 209 ml since 9am. Torrential!
Of course, this means the creek is up. Here’s how it went:
We have never seen it go above 5 metres before!
Lots of thunder and lightening and eventually we heard a big bang that wasn’t from the heavens. When we looked out the back there was a gap in the foliage along our side of the creek quite a ways from the house. A boulder the size of a Volkswagon was missing – it had fallen into the creek.
Now this isn’t a problem per se, but it does show a change in the edge of the gully which might eventually be a problem for the house.
Popping down the road to do a general check, we feared the neighbours had lost their new-yet-unfinished driveway.
Yesterday:
Today:
We were later told that at one point all that could be seen were the capstones at the top of the gateposts!
This was as far as we got then – the road was covered with water and it wasn’t clear that it wasn’t damaged.
The question is – is the arch still there or has it been washed away! Only time will tell!
We went home, did some laundry and cooked up some lunch and then thought we’d go check again.
Yes, the arch is still there! Phew!
However the owner had left his car in front – he has lived here for over 20 years and that spot has never been under water. He can’t say that anymore; his car was washed away. Oh dear!
The top crossing, near the school busstop, was simply monstrous. I could not believe the amount of water and so brown and muddy! You can see that the water has been much higher but its not quite as obvious how much has been washed away – there are whole boulders and huge amounts of greenery missing. Will this never stop?
We went down to the Green Bridge and – oh my! Huge damage. The barriers are mostly destroyed. This end of the bridge is mostly washed out. Its hard to tell if it is passable, but it might be. At any rate we need some urgent work by council once the water recedes. If it is passable, I do not want to be the first one across – no telling how much is missing underneath!
I’m starting to wonder just how long we will be unable to get out – will we have to have supplies choppered in?
On the way home we dropped in on neighbours who have a small creek running through their front yard at the best of times; their creek hadn’t quite reached the house, but it was a close thing. They were out trying to put rock in place to put it back where it belonged, drenched head to toe, but I don’t think they will have much success until the water recedes.
Update: Late photos from a neighbour
Here is some video of the top bridge on Cedar Creek Rd.
As you can see, the picturesque rock pool isn’t even visible – This photo of the Cedar Creek waterfall shows the ame area in better times.
Here are a couple of photos of the same area:
Thanks to Lance Winley.
