Well, we finally did the move and got a full on welcome party with the floods.
A good learning experience of how too many things can all go wrong in a matter of days.
A week with no electricity, except for the car chargers (for mobile phones/gps) and the batteries we had for the cordless tools, and no running water, except for what was in the water tanks, was a very thorough, yet mild first hand "exercise" in prepping.
Our BOBs were literally the things that saved the day and our cots (beds). As our BOBs are packed in a way so as to ensure we have everything we need from dry clothes, namely socks and jocks, to the camping showers, we were not in as bad a situation.
Likewise, our little butane camping stove made things so much more comfortable. It may not be a "long term" solution, but it sure is, without a doubt in my mind now a great stepping stone to a more permanent solution. Let's call it a "transition phase".
All in all, learned a lot from the flood(s) and yes, everything is good, we are all alive and well, still stressed, but focusing on what is important and what all now needs to be done so as to make the move to our new homestead again.
The experience also gave us full on insight into what to expect in future when the "unexpected" happens. Even if we know that we can't be prepared for everything, we now also know that by being prepared, we can improvize and overcome the challenges and obstacles.
Note: we didn't have all our "things" with us, as the truck with the containers didn't leave Sydney, but the stuff we brought with us did pay the price and the inverter, the water pump and fridge all died. Again, not expected, but it happened. As for the basic furniture, well, it is all replaceable and as such isn't something that we are worried about.
Will get deeper into it all, once we get back on our feet. Am back in the "reorganize" mode, so that we can get to where we want and need to be.
& sorry for deleting all the videos and photos that we had of the water in the building and the damaged/waterlogged stuff, just don't want to see it, the images are all too vivid and crystal clear with a better pixel rate than any monitor in this world, don't need photos to remind me or the kids or my Mrs. We look forward to making do with what we have and making the most of what life has to offer. No point in mindbonking ourselves with reminders/photos of negative things.
Stay safe,
God bless.
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Crazy stuff and hope the new place works out well.
idk man, it was definitely a "wake up call" to what all is around us, that is all I can say.
Fires floods what's next?
What 3 inches of flowing water (& mud) does, is literally evil. So I can't imagine what it is like for the people of Lismore, Gympie and other places that got metres/yards of water go through their homes. Even with the little that we copped, I am needing to spay the toxic crap against mould, all I see with the homes that were literally under water all the way above their roof is "demolition" and rebuild.
At least I was able to take notes where and how to prevent it from happening in future, to detour any crazy amount of rainfall, but how does one prevent meters of water and mud and shit that just keeps rising!
Can you build like a retaining wall and some kind of culvert to reroute it should it happen again?
I'm gonna dig trenches, tank trenches like the ones in the former yugoslapheadia, where anything unwanted tries to cross gets stuck and goes down, from wild pigs to tanks and flowing water.
I will figure something out, just need the time, patience, money and willpower!