It had been raining non-stop for days culminating in the worst flooding event for years, six months rainfall in one weekend, records smashed in my state of QLD.
My usual commute to work is 30-50 minutes. I was booked to work early shifts Saturday and Sunday. The Saturday morning drive in was straightforward, first small flood I came to five minutes from the hospital, I could navigate, found an alternate route, arrived, entering the carpark the usual way, shooshing through a big puddle, the start of a big flood, a river in the the road.
By 3.30pm my trusty advisors at home told me river had breached its banks in the usual places, flowing over roads and bridges, as bad as it gets but levels had dropped again and all was looking fine so I made an uneventful journey home in the rain , relieved to get back safely.
Heavy rain continued without respite, I went to bed early in prep for going to work next day not sure if I’d make it or even attempt it. The state of my mind was clear when I woke up to a huge noise, sure it was one of our big gum trees landing on the house. I leapt out of bed to find it was a gun shooting action movie being played at LOUD volume by certain family members. Words were exchanged.
Sunday morning torn between not being a sissy and not being an idiot I decided to drive slowly in with a low threshold for turning back. Scariest part was driving over “the range” the downhill winding, scenic road through the rain forest, notorious for car crashes (my own included,) rain sheeting, me driving like a granny, death grip on the steering wheel forehead almost touching the windscreen, making sure I didn’t brake at the wrong time, visions of my Micra sliding off down the mountain. Once on the regular suburban road the rest of the journey uneventful , drove all the routes I knew wouldn’t be flooded.
Sunday end of shift time rain still pouring , checked out the media footage , had watched the rising flood waters , real time entertainment of a car or two being rescued out front of the hospital from the vantage point of the sixth floor, people wading waist deep (why🤷♀️) Had the offer of going to a friends house or sons girlfriend’s family home nearby , of sitting tight or trying for home. Call from husband he’d been driving around our local area , waters receding , rain less ,was confident I could make it home so pulled my big girl pants up and set off in the trusty Micra.
Went right at the hospital exit road instead of my usual left, quickly reached the main drag leading from city to my home suburb, weirdly dark for 4pm, rain heaving down but I was confident, optimistic, that is until I came across the first road block of man, the local creek had burst its banks and quickly filled the dip in the road in front of me, a car trapped , sloshing around , frantic pedestrians directing traffic.
The only option was left or u-turn back to the city so I duly followed the many cars turning left, lots of them, busy with hospital employees doing the same as me. Like lambs to the slaughter we all drove down a dead end, all had to navigate a u- turn back out, rain still heaving, sheeting at some points, gloomy, loads of pedestrians with umbrellas gawking at the rising water.
Still confident, I knew another route home from there but nope, wasn’t to be. Another flooded road, blue/red lights flashing, police car, soaking wet people running around, another split second decision, left or the u-turn , left was up into unknown suburban territory, surely I could drive along parallel to the flooded road back to where I needed to be? Couldn’t be that hard.
Getting darker, rain pelting, managed to navigate out to the road I needed to be, yes!! Ah no, didn’t look good at all, lots of debris, the odd tree in my path and what looked like mud and then further on, fk , more blue/red lights, another barricade. About halfway home by now , at the bottom of a steep windy, uphill road, one I was very familiar with, turns out there’d been a landslide, looked at photos of it later (eeek) glad I wasn’t caught in it!
No choice but a u- turn then left into more unfamiliar backstreets, totally over it by now but gave myself a good talking to, big deep breaths. Compared to refugees trying to leave the Ukraine (at the time) stuck in streams of traffic going god knows where, this was nothing … kind of.
More gawking, bare footed people in macs , with dogs and big umbrellas , visions of having to pull over and invite myself into one of their homes. Found myself driving alongside a raging fast flowing body of water, the notion that it might spill over the road any minute. Is this a river? Flooded school rugby field? God knows? Despite the Ukrainian comparison was feeling a tad stressed , a bit over it , nothing for it but to try and head back to work, the road to the other two pleasanter options flooded.
Slow stream of traffic heading back everyone doing what I’d just done, drove into a pothole at one point, had to do a wee reverse to get out, person behind beeping frantically wondering what the hell I was doing. SO relieved to finally drive back into the hospital car park, properly dark by then, had been on the road for two hours. Sat in my car like a stunned mullet thinking about where to find dinner, where I was going to put my head down for the night then a knock on my window, a work buddy had literally done the same as me! We compared stories, laughed hysterically commiserated then headed indoors to find an emergency action plan had been activated for scenarios like this.
The spacious doctors lounge had opened its doors to all stragglers, light filled, floor to ceiling windows, views of the city, proper coffee machines , fully equipped kitchen , large screen TV’s and showers (trying not to be bitter.) Names were taken, dinner produced, toiletries given out, mattresses, linen, pillows. I ended up sleeping in the endoscopy unit on a surprisingly comfortable trolley with my own ensuite. I giggled at the surreal absurdity of it all then actually managed to sleep.
Morning came, rolled up my hospital swag, endoscopy showered, helped myself to free doctors lounge coffee (bit average to be honest) , chit chat with everyone, rain stopped, flood levels down, time to head home.
The boom gates for the hospital car park were wide open with a stream of employees in their cars coming in to workas i left. An elderly white-haired lady in a minibus was head of the queue, seemingly oblivious her vehicle might be too tall. She proceeded forward, I did the frantic STOPPPPP waving thing, she didn’t see, I heard a loud metal scraping noise, in my rearview mirror as I drove off, could see she was completely jammed, the queue of waiting staff snake-ing all the way back to the main road.
Sitting here tonight listening to the frogs singing , rain stopped , feeling lucky , feeling grateful , thinking of those with homes damaged or ruined , livelihood’s affected. The randomness of life never knowing what will happen one day to the next, the sheer luck of living in a safe country, the bravery of the people of Russia right now protesting a war (THAT is brave) the terror and devastation faced by the displaced people of the Ukraine .
Will keep watching the relentless awful footage on the news cycle 🥺😭, too important to look away completely which is what I want to do , donate money too, what else can we do from here?
My little 2hr adventure in the rain and flooded roads pales in comparison , but there it is, a story that deserved to be told. Have a lovely day all ,stay safe xx
Addit – Rain moving south down the coast to NSW still causing chaos 💔💔💔
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