Page 188 - Mit dem Wohnwagen durch Australien 2

FLOODS
In January 2010 we were surrounded by bushfires and could not get evacuated anymore. Luckily it rained just in
time to put the fires out. Now, it rains like cats and dogs. Carnarvon got 21 cm within 24 hours, which is more than
the normal full year quota. The next day it rained another 10 cm. A cyclone hit the coast far more southerly than
usual and dropped its wet load directly over Carnarvon. The whole town was flooded and we had a little lake around
our caravan. Nothing to worry about, most of the water was gone by the end of the day. The next day was Beat’s
Birthday and we planned to go out for dinner and have a yummy seafood buffet. Well, that was the plan.

As it goes with a lot of plans, they are for the dogs. Late in the morning we got called for a meeting in the caravan
park topic: Evacuation of the park because of an impending flash flood from the Gascoyne River. The new plan was,
to go to the civic centre in town, get meals from the Red Cross and sleep with hundreds of people in a large hall. Not
a good plan to any standards, certainly not for me. We relocated just in time to a caravan park which lies on the
highest ground in Carnarvon, before the police closed the road.

DIARY OF AN EMERGENCY FLOOD EVACUATION
Day 1, December 18, 2010
First annoyance that our well planned routine is interrupted. Beat’s Birthday dinner outing goes down the drain. We
are torn back and forth between obeying the evacuation orders to go to the Civic Centre in town or going to the
Capricorn Holiday Park which lies higher than the town but will not have power nor water and no access to supplies,
once the road is closed. We pack and unpack, plan and un-plan; a very unsettling time. All the while it is humid, hot,
sweaty and drizzly. Once we decide to go to the Capricorn Park, we start to calm down and it feels almost like the
aftermath of shock. We join the other viewers and watch the road from high above in expectance of the spectacle
to come. The floods should come at around 6 pm. We keep waiting until 8 pm, but no water. Instead there is a wildly
flashing police car on the road, turning back all cars driving towards the waters, wanting to escape the inevitable.
Beat cooks a lovely dinner with fresh pink emperor, caught the day before off the Carnarvon Coast. We still have
electricity and water when we go to sleep.

Day 2, December 19, 2010
We wake up to a gray morning but still have power and water. The floods started at 3 am and have now claimed the
road and all the low lying ground. The Petrol station across the road has about 1 m of water on their forecourt. The
road to the Campground looks like a boat ramp. We explore the rest of the caravan park and discover that there is
plenty of room even higher up, should the waters really threaten us. The peak should reach us at about 9 pm. We
will have a social gathering at the BBQ and Camp Kitchen at 4 pm to keep the spirits up (sic!). Helicopters swoop
above us. We hope for Julia Gillard (Australia’s Prime Minister) to visit us, but with our luck it will be Colin Barnett....
(W.A. Prime Minister). We plan for trips with a tinny (little boat) to town. At present it is still too dangerous. Orders for
beer and maybe wine for the ladies are high on everybody’s mind. In addition to that we would like to get some
butter, the only thing we forgot to buy. In Ohio people are said to watch the buns rise on an uneventful Sunday. Here
we watch the water rise and dig ourselves in for a prolonged siege of a week, up to Christmas.

We hear on the radio, that the water supply will be cut and fill any possible container. Steve, the camping manager
complains vehemently to the responsible officials and tells them that we are 50 people and about 15 dogs who
would not have drinking water, toilets or showers, so they keep the water running. The electricity is gone for good.
No more TV, Aircondo and Microwave (no worries), loading of PC’s and Telephone. The Fridge is turned to gas; the
lights and the radio draw on our leisure battery. The water is rising rapidly and runs like a wild mountain torrent down
the highway it now reaches the flower border on the incline to the Caravan Park. It is 9 pm and the water keeps
rising. We go to sleep with some trepidation.

Day 3, December 20, 2010
We are rudely awakened at 4 am by loud knocking on the door. The water has broken through the plantation in the
back and has now flooded the Campground manager’s house. We get ready to pull out and drive to higher ground
on the hill. At first light, 6 am we all drive up two meters higher, then we watch with horror, as the waters rise above
all expectations. The brand new 800’000 AUD house across the road which is built quite high, is now evacuated, the
water is over their Veranda and runs into the house. The power distribution and transformer for the Campground,
which sit on a little mound at the roadside, are 75 % inundated. We watch with horrified trepidation and fascination
as the water slowly creeps up the bank.