Oh,,,,THIS looks like fun???

[Cosmicvandal]

If there is anyone out there planning a trip to the southern state of victoria,,,,Probably a good idea to forget about Gippsland at the moment,,,

Its looking a little like the town of Sale, (my home) will be isolated due to flooding or road damage,     


We are getting reports of flooding from all the major waterways that surround the town,

But all is not lost,,,If we get REALLY stuck,,,the local Air Force base will be available with a nice long runway,,,,But till then,,,we aint goin nowhere,

[JugNut]

Hey CV hope ya see the sun sometimes soon there mate..

And I hope you've been practising your dog paddle also?  ;D 


Cheers ..JN..

[Cosmicvandal]

Hey Jug,,,,LMAO,,,Forget the doggy paddle,,i got my brothers boat,,,,I cant bloody swim anyhow,,     

Lawry,,,,Up in the catchments we would have had probably a bit more than that by now,,,and we got more coming, What we are getting now is just the start of the run off, We have not got the full brunt of it yet,

The local dam here, (lake Glenmaggie) at the moment is spilling at around 58,000 ML per day,,to achieve a major flood event they need to spill about 25,000 ML per day,, So you can guess what we are in for,,,

Not to mention the Avon river has burst its banks and cut the Princes H,way a short time ago,,,And the Thomson and Latrobe rivers are on the rise, Keeping ANYTHING here dry will be a miracle,,,

[JugNut]

Leaving it a bit late to learn hey, just as the water's rising an all.  ;D

Hope your a quick study.    biggrin

Your best bet is to booby trap the boat that way any other sneaky buggers who is also err water challenged won't nick it on you when you need it.. 


Best of luck ..JN..

[Cosmicvandal]

Yeah ill just keep the drain plug in my pocket,,,,They wont know about it until they are a good distance out,,,,


:furious:

[Cosmicvandal]

As i sit here, listening to my little black box,,,,(Scanner) I am hearing chatter from the SES at a road block just outside Stratford, where the Avon river has burst and cut highway access, Interesting what you hear, (including ONE silly little SES recruit that cannot use a radio to save his own LIFE)

I then just come back out to the shack to hear that the ARMY is coming to town, Two bus loads, Several Unimogs, Enough equipment to sink a ship, and several boats,

I have a feeling that they will camp at the RAAF base close by,,,I just hope that the RAAFies  dont make the Army guys sleep out in tents like they did last time!!!!!

Oh on a sad note,,,One person was found deceased in their car, Unofficially, it is suspected they drove through flood waters and got stuck and drowned,,

There is a lesson in this guys,,,,

[JugNut]

I used to live in a small country town call Coraki a short distance from Lismore on mid north coast NSW which used to regularly flood.   In Lismore its self it used to go up to the shop awnings in the main street and many of the houses were built on stilts.  Where I was they were stiil raised but only 3 or 4 foot high & the water only went chest high during major floods (1974 ect) and we always had a boat tied to the back steps before the flood peak arrived. Your neighbours were each others lifeline.  Also  SES went by from time to time and could be relied upon in emergencies.  But it wasn't all bad, after myself & my parents panic had died down & the house was safe all the kids had a ball in the water, didn't have to go to school, I even found a surf board & a 44gal drum of petrol floating down the main street. I remember also we had to be careful of and watch out for snakes, spiders & other creepy crawlies that also floated by.

Like many things I suppose it affects each differently.  If you can keep your sense of humour & use a bit of nouse you can't go to far wrong..


Cheers & good luck to you & your people ..JN..

[Cosmicvandal]

Thanks JN,,,,We however have some MORE crap news,,,,after the initial flood peak was thought to have passed,,,we now have ANOTHER one due for about 10pm tonight,,Down at the local wharf in the middle of Sale,,,(on the Thomson river) it has already gone beyond the major flood level,,

I did at one stage live at a local Caravan park,,,Probably the one you see on the TV tonight, I did actually go in and warn them of imminent flooding last night,,,But they have ignored me,,,Sucks to be them,,Now we see all the cars at the front gate where they tried to get out,,,

[Cosmicvandal]

Well as at 9pm tonight,,the water levels have peaked and then started to recede, There are still a hell of a lot of roads closed due to flooding of damage,,,

The main road through here the Princes highway is open between Melbourne and almost to Cann River, But there is a flood warning for Lakes Entrance over the next 24 hours or so, That may close the highway there again,,

All the water that has flooded us is now on its way down there,,,

For a better idea on the scale of it all have a look at this website for road closures,

http://alerts.vicroads.vic.gov.au/

If you live here in vic or just want to know a bit more of whats happening,,, you can check here for the latest weather warnings,

http://www.weatherzone.com.au/warnings.jsp?lt=wzstate&lc=vic

[Mike Mitchell]

I was worried you were going to say you'd been flood-evacuated. 

[Cosmicvandal]

Where i used to live,(Thomson River Caravan Park) well yes,,,i have been evacuated out of there on several occasions, You would have seen this on the ABC news, I dont actually live there anymore,,,for this very reason,,

I have deliberately chosen a spot on the outskirts of town that if flooded, would mean the entire town would have to be under water first,,,However there are people on the other side of town that have had to evac,,,

And there are entire towns that have either had to evac or been totally isolated,,with some homes inundated,

At the Port of Sale,,,There are some boats there that were bumping into the TOPS of the bollards,

There has also been a fair amount of damage done to the new road development sites here, Also some rather expensive equipment losses too,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5DCJJAsaJg

[Furlozza]

A belated reply:

CV, glad to know that you at least have survived.

Lawry.... yeah, wombat was well and truly bundled up in cave when the front came through..... I still can't believe that the chill factor temp got down to 1.6C that night...... Glad I wasn't in Katoomba, where the wind chill took it down to -7.8C *SHIVERING FIERCELY JUST AT THE THOUGHT*... oh yeah, that was definitely colder than Christmas night at Lambaugh Field in Green Bay (although beaver coat was greatfully worn LMAO)

ANyways CV, hope that life returns to a semblance of normality within a week

[Cosmicvandal]

Well i am happy to report that the waters are receding,  and roads are being cleared/repaired/opened as we speak,

The road between NSW and Melbourne is now open,,,But there is and will be some delays for some time yet,

Lakes Entrance narrowly avoided a major flood, and is now open for business once again,

National Parks are open ,,,but the State Forests have been closed for the long weekend, (CRAP,,,,wanted to take the new Muzzle Loader out for a shot)  :furious:

There will be swampy bits and stagnet water around for months, So if you do venture down this way,,,Bring the Aeroguard, (Tropical strength)

We will have another couple of weeks of cleanup at least to bring the place back to "Looking" like normal,

There has been some extensive road damage in some places, and quite a lot of erosion and undermining in some places,,,so gotta tread carefully,

We didnt suffer as bad as the 2007 floods,,,but its almost as bad as there are still places that had not been repaired since the last ones,

Some of the farm land here has not had stock on it since the 2007 floods as we have had regular minor flooding since then,,,and some places were so wet you would sink up to your knees,,,and now it will be wet for another few more months, we will have to see what summer brings this year,

[JugNut]

Glad to hear you are safe & well.



Cheers ..JN..

[Cosmicvandal]

Yeah we are all good and well here,,,But talking to a few people i know round the area,, there is still way too much water just lying around,,

I just happen to be talking to a friend on the UHF radio and where he works up in the hills,,(sawmill) there is STILL 5ML of water in the pit,,

Lots of roads still closed,,,but we are able to move around reasonably easily with some minor delays and detours,

The Sale to Longford road is still closed,,,and the construction of the new road between them has been delayed once again due to flooding or bad weather, It should have been finished about a year ago,,But it is moving along bit by bit,

It has been a bit of a godsend in one way,, The rabbit population has been knocked down to record LOW numbers, and just to help with that a few of us have been bumping off the ones that were stranded on little islands or sections of roads that had become dead ends,,Some of them were starved or half dead through being wet, so we saw it as a humane thing to do,

Overall,,,we got away with this one fairly lightly, Although there are some Caravan Parks that did NOT fair so well,

That aside ,,,all good