Catastrophe!

THE Gympie Cats would have been better off being fish yesterday as flood waters covered their oval and inched towards their Australian Rules clubhouse.

Picture: Craig Warhurst

THE Gympie Cats would have been better off being fish yesterday as flood waters covered their oval and inched towards their Australian Rules clubhouse.

President Glen Warren and vice-president Jason Bromilow could do nothing but watch and wait after arriving at the Six Mile grounds to see how high the flood waters would rise.

The Bureau of Meteorology predicted yesterday morning the Mary River would rise to about 14 metres by the afternoon - about three metres over the level Warren and Bromilow were looking at yesterday morning.

“If it gets that high it will go close to going in the clubhouse,” Warren said.

He said the club had a lot of valuable gear in the clubhouse including fridges, freezes and footy gear.

“We have all the Cool Cats junior footy gear in there too.

“We'll have to come back this afternoon (yesterday) and keep an eye on the situation,” he said.

Warren said, if necessary, they would jump the railway tracks behind the facility to access the club house and rescue the contents of the building.

The president said in times of emergencies like floods access was cut off to the grounds by water.

“We really need an emergency access track from the RSPCA to the grounds,” he said. “We really need a back vehicle access to help us evacuate easily.”

At 10.30am, the football field had about a metre and a half of flood water covering it but by late afternoon, the Bureau of Meteorology had downgraded the flood threat.

Warren and Bromilow were hoping the oval would be playable for their season opening game against Pomona this Saturday.

“Once the river goes down, hopefully the field will be all right,” Warren said.

“If we don't get any more rain we might be able to play on it.”

But the president had already spoken to the Pomona club's president just in case the venue for the clash needed to be changed.

“Pomona has had a fair bit of rain too so we will just have to wait and see,” he said.

Bromilow said the club had planned a coach's course for last night, but said it would have to be cancelled.

“We had about 20 people turning up - somehow I don't think we will be able to have it,” he said.

Originally published as Catastrophe!