Friday, January 14, 2011

The aftermath...

We are now back at home after two very stressful days.  We arrived back here at about 10:30 in the morning to a dry house, but still without power.  We moved all of our furniture back downstairs and got rid of the sandbags and plastic that we had at the front of the house.  The power came back on at about 12:30 in the afternoon, so we are just about back to normal. 
Our townhouse, ready for the worst with the limited material we had

We couldn't move the sectional or dining table upstairs, we hoped this would do the trick

...less than three hours after returning

As shocking as it was to see the water rise so quickly, it is even more surprising to see how quickly it has drained away.  We were told to expect that it could take up to a week for the waters to completely subside, and in many places that is probably true, but the water was gone from our street this morning when we returned and the cleanup had already started.  They have warned people about the things that they could find in the sludge: sharp objects, lots of broken things, fish and snakes (eek).  We don't have the necessary gumboots and clean-up equipment to really be of any help, we are just talking to all of our neighbours and making sure that they are okay.  A long time resident up the street told us we were less than 1/2 metre of water level rise from devastation...he was living on this street for the 1974 floods. 
The office is expected to be open on Monday and they are trying to keep a "business as usual" mandate.  Right now we don't feel like we could even function at work, but a couple of good nights sleep should sort us out.  It will be a relief to get away from the news, if nothing else.

Our street this morning, water-free!

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