Men rescue 78-year-old woman from flood-stricken home
These are the dramatic scenes of people rescued by boat from disintegrating homes in Holloways Beach as they arrive at Barron River bridge, met by loved ones.
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There were dramatic scenes as people arrived by boat at the Barron River Bridge, meeting anxious loved ones after escaping from disintegrating houses in Holloways Beach.
Among those reunited were 78-year-old force of nature Dianna Quick and her granddaughter Pauline Pizzardi, who met her at Barron River Bridge in Statford just after 11am.
Ms Quick was rescued from her Holloways Beach house by two strangers on Sunday morning.
Ms Pizzardi explained that the family had heard two men were going around the area helping people out of their homes and when they managed to contact them and she explained that her beloved grandmother was in her house with water rising all around her.
“They carried me down the street,” Ms Quick said.
“Then they put me in a boat. I don’t know what I would have done. They were both outstandingly lovely.”
Ms Pizzardi couldn’t keep the smile off her face as she wheeled her grandmother from bridge at Stratford.
The Barron River Bridge, amid record flooding, has become a meeting point for anxious families.
‘GOT A HOTEL ROOM, FOUND OUT IT WAS GOING UNDER’
Shae Curr-Parkes, with antler ears adorning her head and reddened eyes, explained how she was left on one side of the river with her husband and children aged – three and five – on the other since Saturday night.
“We went to a Christmas Party on Saturday night, when we tried getting back to Holloways they told me: ‘It’s too dangerous, you can’t go in’. But I was thinking ‘too dangerous?’ My kids and my husband are there,” she recalled.
“After we got a hotel room, we found out the place was going under.”
READ THE SOUVENIR FLOOD EDITION OF CAIRNS POST HERE
When Ms Curr-Parkes says “we” she is talking about her neighbour and friend Kate Hammacott.
The Cairns Post spoke to both of them as they waited on the bridge, looking over the crowd on tiptoes hoping the next boat would arrive with their husbands and young children.
Not only did Ms Hammacott also have two children aged seven and five and her husband in Holloways Beach, but she soon found enough her house had been decimated.
“There was a sense of despair, definitely,” Ms Hammacott said.
“Apparently the water was coming up so quickly he wasn’t able to really grab anything. The house was been completely destroyed.”
True to the spirit of the Far North in the face of the disaster, Ms Hammacott said: “there are people worse off that us in the world” – and some of them were helped by her husband, too.
Not long after their house was destroyed, her husband Byron Hammacott, got in a tinny and rescued half-a-dozen from their flooded homes.
Ms Curr-Parkes teared up as Ms Hammacott spoke.
While her friend felt a sense of gratitude, Ms Curr-Parkes felt guilt.
“I feel like I should have been doing something earlier,” she said, adding she was afraid to speak to her children in case she gets too emotional and distresses them further.
Another fighting back tears was Josh Howard.
Mr Howard had just got off the boat after being rescued when he told the Cairns Post “many houses were destroyed on Bamboo Street”.
“We had two and a half foot of water come through the house. My loved ones are very distraught,” Mr Howard said.
“I just feel glad to know that they are safe, it’s great to know they are on higher ground, it was one the scariest things I’ve been through. I have escaped from my own house in a boat.”
Meanwhile, 78-year-old Dianna Quick shared that as she sat on a firm-backed seat with flood waters rising all around she “was feeling angry and wanted to cry, but I was not scared”.
“I’ve been here since 1975, I’ve never had water come into my home,” she continued.
“I guess I just couldn’t believe it was happening. I wasn’t expecting this, I told everyone at half past ten I was alright and by half past 11 I was sitting there calling for help.”
Her granddaughter Ms Pizzardi said while her grandmother just managed to get out with a few precious possessions in a handbag “everything that got destroyed is replaceable.”
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Originally published as Men rescue 78-year-old woman from flood-stricken home
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