Rocky aged-care 'paradise' turns into flooded nightmare

GALLERY: Residents' say homes are 'a dump' after continued flooding

SURVEYING THE DAMAGE: Doug Bryant's idea of a 'paradise' has been shattered by flooding. Picture: Steph Allen

THOUGH some may have been rejoicing the heavy downpour on Sunday, there were others who were watching the falling rain with trepidation.

Eva Gorrie has lived at Rockhampton's Prescare Alexandra Gardens Aged Care for 12 months and has been disheartened by the village's "constant flooding", which she claims has been affecting eight units with water damage for over a year.

Eva Gorrie shows how high the sandbags were stacked to keep water off their doorsteps. Picture: Steph Allen

The grass around her little home is riddled with trenches to keep the water at bay.

But even these and the sandbagging efforts of the SES couldn's stop Sunday's wild weather creating a raging river course between two facility's two blocks of units.

The units were pummelled by the rain, which came in from the roads and under the gap of the fence to run across carpet areas and the interior areas of the single-level homes.

Despite Prescare's installation of pumps in the large trenches, the sudden onslaught meant hoses couldn't be installed until yesterday morning, long after the stormy weather had died down.

Although her rental house was spared from too much damage this time around, Eva said some of her neighbours had not been as lucky.

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A spokesman for Prescare yesterday said five residents had been transferred to temporary accommodation and were expected to be there for the rest of the week.

The spokesman said the major concern was about making sure the tenants were looked after, however, he said any further questions needed to be directed to Prescare's CEO who was flying yesterday afternoon and had not contacted The Morning Bulletin last night.

Eva said this was the second time since April and third in just over a year that they've been forced to comply with the "band aid" solution of temporary accommodation.

She said she residents wanted the problem fixed as it was an ongoing stress to have to constantly relocate.

"They have a reserve that 'you can go to this motel and just leave everything'... but you're still leaving your home, all your furniture and all your goods to be washed away or ruined by water," Ms Gorrie said.

"I've spoken to all the others that have been flooded a couple of times and they still kept paying rent while they were in this private accommodation.

"I don't believe in paying rent to someone that doesn't listen to you and I have put in complaints."

Ms Gorrie's daughter, Kerrie Collins, said that in the April floods, the water in her mum's unit was "up to her knees", which resulted in carpets being ripped out.

This time Ms Gorrie has had to pay for fans to be brought in to air the relatively new carpets.

Doug Bryant is one of the five evacuated yesterday to a Capricorn Motel & Conference Centre and to The Edge until the end of the week.

With his belongings stacked high in his bathroom and living room, there's not much for Mr Bryant to do but wait for the maintenance workers to come in once again and fix the damage.

"[Prescare] is paying for new pumps now," he said.

Water up to the doorsteps of residents' homes. Picture: Contributed

"The drains used to work but now with these buildings here... and trucks pass by on the roads and make bow waves that push the water down into our houses.

"Prescare handed [Prescare Alexandra Gardens] over to [a local real estate] and I had words to a woman this morning... they're supposed to be managing the property.

"We thought it was going to be paradise."

Another resident, who wished not to be identified, said on top of the three floods she had encountered whilst living at Prescare, there had also been two near misses.

"I've had my carpets ripped out before but they're just drying them now," she said.

The method of drying is an installation of fans that are run for three to four days straight, chewing up the electricity bills of the elderly residents.

"I have been moving stuff to keep it out of the water but now my back has gone bad," she said.

"It's just the inconvenience - they've cut into my walls before because the lining gets all wet and causes mildew which is no good for breathing."

Another resident experienced the same thing when the floods gushed through her home in April this year.

"I was evacuated to The Edge for two weeks and the second time we went to The Quest for two weeks," she said.

"The first time they paid for our accommodation over there and they gave us two weeks free rent but the last time we were moved out they told us they were going to give us free rent but we never got it.

"They would come in within a day or two days and pull all the carpet up in the bedrooms and you've got most of your furniture apart from your bed out here and when they pull the carpet up the floors are all sticky.

"That's like it for six weeks and then they come and say 'you're moving out for two weeks' while they fix it up."

For a village that experiences so much flooding, the expenses of repairs for the owners as well as the electricity costs for the residents pile up quickly.

But according to the anonymous resident, there is a much simpler solution that could save both parties a lot of money.

"If they put a retainer wall in and put the fence on top of it," she said.

"The problem is coming from over the fence out there in the gutters out there that can't take the force of the water so it comes in here.

"The maintenance man got them to pull so many sandbags away last time because he could see the fence was going to go with the pressure of the water that was going to push the fence over."

But instead of building a wall to stop the rain from coming in under the gaps of the colourbond fence, the solution has been to dig trenches along the fence line and stack sandbags which are now rotting away.

Water is being pumped out of the large trenches outside the residents' houses. Picture: Steph Allen

The trenches have been designed to collect the cascading rain coming down into the backyards of the residents which is then pumped out outside other residents' homes.

The large holes are covered with steel grates and blocked off with plastic netting down the middle of the residents' backyard.

It has been left this way for over 12 months and to Elizabeth Tyler and Alan Pollock, their backyard has been turned into "a dump".

"The sandbags have been left there for 12 months and are rotting," Ms Tyler said.

"This place should never have been built here - something has got to be done."

Originally published as Rocky aged-care 'paradise' turns into flooded nightmare