I live in a gorgeous semi rural village north of the city, a 30-50 minute commute to work depending on time of day. It’s been raining here for days and days culminating this past weekend in the worst flooding event for years , records smashed in my state of QLD, there’s been half a years rainfall in this one weekend.
I was booked to work early shifts Saturday and Sunday. The drive in 6.30am Saturday straightforward first flood I came across was five minutes from the hospital so spun around found an alternate route heading back towards the city which led me eventually to my destination , entered the carpark via the usual way shooshing through a big puddle (which was later to turn into a big flood) traffic lights out but everyone inching forward slowly navigating them politely and safely
By 3.30pm my trusty advisors at home told me rivers had breached their banks in the expected places flowing over roads and bridges , very intense , 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 but the state of my mind was clear when I woke up to a huge noise , was sure for a minute it was one of our big gum trees about to land on the house , leapt out of bed found it was a car chasing , 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 decided to drive slowly in with a low threshold for turning back. Scariest part was driving over “the range” a downhill winding scenic road through the rain forest notorious for car crashes , rain sheeting at that point me granny driving at 40km/hr death grip on the steering wheel forehead almost touching the windscreen, making sure I didn’t brake in the wrong places , visions of my Micra sliding off down the mountain (had an incident on this same road a few years back , that’s another story) 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 which leads from city to my home suburb , was weirdly dark for 4pm and rain heaving down but I was confident , until that is I came across the first road block of many😩, the local creek had burst its banks and quickly filled the dip in the road in front of me a car already 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, very busy for a Sunday afternoon …. like lambs to the slaughter we all drove down a dead end then all had to navigate a u- turn back out . Rain still heaving, sheeting at some points , very gloomy , loads of people with umbrellas gawking at the rising water.
Still confident, 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 and another split second decision, the left or the u-turn , left it 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 on , 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. I was 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 today (eeek) glad I wasn’t caught in it! So , no choice but another 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 the refugees trying to leave the Ukraine stuck in streams of traffic going god knows where this was nothing … kind of
More gawking , bare footed wet 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 , I drove into a pothole at one point , had to do a wee reverse to get out of it person behind beeping frantically wondering what the hell I was doing , so relieved to finally drive back into the hospital car park , had been on the road for two hours , was properly dark by then. Sat there 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 laughed , compared stories, commiserated then headed indoors to find an emergency action plan had been activated by our hospital for scenarios like this
The spacious, light filled doctors lounge with its floor to ceiling windows and views of the city , proper coffee machines , fully equipped kitchen , large screen TV’s and showers (trying not to be bitter) opened its doors to all the stragglers. Names were taken , dinner produced , toiletries given out , mattresses , linen , pillows. A few of us ended up in the endoscopy unit on surprisingly comfortable trolleys with our own ensuite , endoscopy optional 😜 We giggled at the surreal absurdity of it all then actually managed to sleep
Morning , rolled up my hospital sheet swag , shower , coffee, chit chat with everyone, rain had stopped , flood levels down , was time to head home.
One last random thing. The boom gates for the hospital car park were still open for everyone to access , the only safe way in , i was leaving and facing me a big steady stream of cars trying to enter. An elderly lady (bless her) driving a mini bus slowly proceeding in , obvious her vehicle was too tall, wouldn’t fit. I did the frantic waving thing, she oblivious. Could hear the loud metal scraping noise in my mirror as I drove off and could see in my mirror, she was completely jammed 🤦🏼♀️ queue of waiting staff snaking 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 💔💔💔