Miracle westside flood babies delivered safely thanks to rescuers
Two Sherwood and Taringa Mums have given birth after dramatic waterborne rescues. It comes as residents in some of the westside’s worst flood-hit streets talked about their heartbreak.
South West
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Two mums have given birth to their “miracle babies’’ thanks to local heroes who rescued them from rising flood waters surrounding their homes in Brisbane’s westside.
Heavily pregnant and with flood water rising up the driveway of her Taringa home, Krystle Henry was kayaked to dry land, thanks to a kind and quick-thinking neighbour.
Ms Henry and her partner Matt Bridges welcomed their baby boy, Angus, at Mater Mothers’ Hospital at 7.30am on Tuesday, weighing 3.7kg.
Mr Bridges said he would be forever grateful to his neighbour.
“We didn’t know Rob, but he was more than happy to help us out and I’m so thankful Angus arrived safely,” he said.
“We’ve got a pandemic baby with two-year-old daughter, Olive, born in 2020 and now we have a flood baby.”
Mater obstetrician Dr Paul Conaghan said he had never delivered a baby in such chaotic circumstances.
“Considering the situation, Krystle and Matt remained very calm. I couldn’t imagine being 39 weeks pregnant and stuck in flood waters,” he said.
For Sherwood couple, Felicity and Alex Jacques, it was the local SES team who transported them to safety only hours before their baby boy arrived.
They had been to lunch at Mr Jacques’ mother’s home on Saturday when flood water continued to rise.
They called the SES for assistance on Sunday when water had risen close to the top of the traffic lights nearby.
“The SES took us safely to dry land at Toowong,” Mrs Jacques said.
“We stayed at a hotel near the hospital overnight and I went into labour in the early hours of the next morning.
“I hate to think what would have happened if we weren’t close to the hospital.
“I’m so relieved our little one is here. He is definitely a little miracle.”
Andrew Jacques was born on March 1, weighing 3.35kg,
Mater Mother’s Hospital Chief Operating Officer, Paula Foley said many mums and families had gone to unforeseen lengths to get to the hospital to have their babies in the past week.
“It’s been an incredibly stressful time for many of our new mums and dads, but we’ve had 188 babies born at Mater Mothers’ South Brisbane in the past week, despite the flooding,” she said.
THURSDAY MORNING
The heartbreaking clean-up continues across Brisbane today with residents in two streets particularly hard hit.
But some are counting their luck that they survived a night of terror on Friday.
Vincent, Torwood, Macintosh, Beard streets, Milton
The clean up began on these devastated streets on Wednesday, then the water rose this morning (Thursday) after another rainbomb.
Milton quantity surveyor Andrew Brady, who got out his tinnie with neighbour Tim Bryant to help locals, said: “People are broken. They can’t do it (clean up) a second time.’’
The streets are lined with piles of ruined household items with a Council bobcat working non-stop to push them into huge piles for pickup by trucks.
Retired chippie Steven Harrison, who lost utes, his beloved motorbikes, fridges, washing machines, power tools and much more, said he had cleaned out under the Torwood St home he has lived in since 1984 and even managed to save some items.
“It’s back in underneath again, not as high this time but I’ll have to do it all over again,’’ he said.
“I’ve never seen the water come up so fast. It was 20 minutes.”
Council spent millions on backflow prevention devices but it doesn’t seem to have helped much.’’
Macquarie St, St Lucia
Riverfront Macquarie St in St Lucia was like a war zone with basements in most of the highrises flooded, mud everywhere, submerged cars beginning to re-emerge from the ooze, and ever-growing piles of ruined household items lining both sides of the street.
Construction company owner Rupert Yang, whose St Lucia home was spared, got out his generators and pumps to help.
“It was like a war zone when I arrived this morning (Wednesday) but by the end of the day we managed to pump out half the water in the basements,’’ he said.
“I think we will get them dry by midday tomorrow (Thursday) so repairs and the clean-up can begin.
Local Councillor, James Mackay, who spent all of Wednesday in Macquarie St helping with the clean-up effort, said an unknown number of older residents with mobility problems were still trapped in their units.
“Macquarie St is ground zero. The low-set buildings on the non-river side were particularly hard hit,’’ he said.
“There were a lot of sodden mattresses, furniture and other things being dragged outside all throughout the day.
“A highlight was when Dominos Toowong dropped off 100 free pizzas.’’
Quandong St, Ashgrove
Residents began the heartbreaking clean-up on Wednesday, which left some with nothing.
Single mum Karen Pitt’s single story rental, backing on to Enoggera Creek, was a mess of stinking mud, ruined furniture and household goods.
She is now living with family after her estate agent said the property would have to be condemned.
“The water has come up to the garden before since 2013, when I moved here, but never into the house,’’ she said.
“There was (creek water) in the fridge and the bottom drawers in the kitchen cupboards and the mattresses are so waterlogged I can’t move them.’’
Wildlife carer Fran Sanders managed to save all bar two of the 22 rescue birds she was caring for and spent today farming the survivors out to people on the street, carers and friends.
“I grabbed the birds and put them in boxes and put them as high up inside the house as I could, but then I had to leave as the water was up to my waist,’’ she said.
“I was sick with worry. I didn’t know if any had survived until I could get back in.’’
Ms Sanders, who has lived in the house for three decades, said it was the fastest and highest flood since 1974.
Bridget Smith only just managed to save her father, who has dementia and mobility issues.
“He is living with us downstairs and when I went to check on him the water was only up to the concrete (slab),’’ she said.
“By the time I got him upstairs it had come up to waist height. We’ve had to send him home to Emerald.’’
Despite being highset, Ms Smith lost a large amount of household items stored on the ground level and her pool was submerged under metres of water.
Kay Elsdon, who has lived in Quandong St since 1989, said it was a worse flood than 2009, which was itself worse than 2011.
She had a friend, Di faulkner, over to help clean-up today as well as Jo Manthey, who saw her plight on Facebook and turned up out of the blue to help.
“I’ll be here for days, however long it takes,’’ she said.
Ms Elsdon said locals joked at the creek side of the creek was known as Quandong Flats, and the opposite side of the street Quandong Heights, but this time houses on both sides flooded.
“We all know each other and have been through many floods. People in Quandong Heights say ‘come up’ to us, not ‘come over’ for a catch up,’’ she said.
EARLIER
Milton and Rosalie residents who had cleaned up yesterday face the heartbreaking prospect of doing it all over again after this morning’s rain bomb saw water rise within 20 minutes.
Manholes blew off with geysers of water shooting high into the air at one point.
Milton quantity surveyor Andrew Brady, who got out his tinnie with neighbour Tim Bryant to help locals, said: “People are broken. They can’t do it (clean up) a second time.’’
Milton Tennis Centre manager Mark Bloomfield had also nearly finished cleaning up yesterday only to have to start all over again this morning.”
“It’s going to take another two days to clean up now. It would help if we had power so we could get in generators but at least we have gas and the water is on so we can blast it,’’ he said.
“We’re hoping we can reopen Sunday. I’ve got 10 staff and four to five people in the shop who are calling me wanting to know when they can start work again.’’
The national operations manager for family-owned business Australian Piano Warehouse, Craig Maria, said he hoped to get in about 1pm today to clean up — assuming the water receded.
“The damage here really is mind boggling,” he said.
“Like most people and businesses, there’s always some hope that when you can return to your home or business, you will have somehow escaped the worst of it.
“But after days of only being able to view the site from afar, today the team gained access to the store and now the damage survey and clean up begins.
“While we’ve seen some truly astonishing scenes of water levels and damage from around the state, there’s something particularly ironic and sad about seeing a room full of beautiful pianos completely destroyed.
“Even the pianos stored on raised pallets didn’t escape damage.”
The pianos in store range from small entry level digial pianos worth a few hundred dollars, right up to traditional upright and grand pianos worth thousands and thousands of dollars.
WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON
A long queue of Karana Downs residents swarmed a helicopter as it landed with much-needed food supplies late on Wednesday afternoon.
Cr Greg Adermann and Council organised the air drop, with help from local state MP Dr Christian Rowan.
Cr Adermann said while Moggill Rd had reopened, there was only one corner store in the Karana Downs area and residents still could not cross the Brisbane River and faced a long drive to the nearest supermarket at Moggill.
“With the predicted rain later this week the roads might go under again so this was definitely needed,’’ he said.
Dr Rowan said organising supplies had been a priority in the past few days with more than 20,000 people from Kenmore to Mt Crosby cut off until Wednesday.
“Providing urgent food, water and essential supplies to residents of Karana Downs, Mt Crosby, Kholo and Lake Manchester over the last few days has been an important priority for both Cr Adermann and myself, in collaboration with disaster management agencies,’’ he said.
“The significant number of local residents utilising the community centre established at Mt Crosby State School reinforces the importance of the ongoing support needed.
“While a review of disaster management planning and coordination will occur, it is vitally important that some of the specific geographic isolation needs of certain parts of the western suburbs of Brisbane are comprehensively examined with respect to infrastructure and planning.”
WEDNESDAY MORNING
Moggill Rd in Brisbane’s west reopened on Wednesday afternoon, to the relief of more than 20,000 people fast running out of food, medicine and fuel.
The road had been cut in three places and Moggill Ferry is out of action until March 14, isolating the sprawling rural residential area from Kenmore to Mt Crosby.
Three chopper loads of supplies finally landed on Tuesday, but about 12.45pm today Moggill Rd reopened allowing anxious residents to escape.
It comes as owners of two of Brisbane’s most beloved nurseries, Brookfield Gardens and its attached, popular eatery Wild Canary, and the nearby Ross Evans Garden Centre, will reopen within a month.
In Brookfield, water came up to the roof at Ross Evans Garden Centre, which was also devastated in the 2011 floods.
Owner and manager Joe Ziukelis and his dedicated staff battled in heavy rain and darkness last Friday to save plants and stock when the heavy rain first set in.
“We managed to get some above (the previous flood line) but it was fruitless and it just became dangerous,’’ Mr Ziukelis said.
“We still haven’t been able to have a good look inside but I’d say the damage is about $150,000 to $250,000.
“It couldn’t be insured after 2011, but I’ve got $100,000 insurance for the stock outside.’’
Despite the devastation Mr Ziukelis was optimistic he could reopen in as soon as two weeks — with the help of his hardworking staff and local residents.
“If there’s one thing we can rely on it’s the community. They will all be here (later this week) helping me clean up,’’ he said.
“There will be a significant loss of trade but you find that makes itself up, with more people coming in afterwards.’’
He was fortunate in that the family’s production nursery on the Gold Coast, which supplies the Brookfield outlet, was unaffected by flooding.
Ross Evans Morningside nursery also was unaffected.
And he hoped about 30 per cent of the top-quality plants could be saved despite being coated in thick, sticky mud.
Mr Ziukelis said releases from Wivenhoe Dam might have worsened the problem as water levels were dropping more slowly in Moggill Creek, behind the nursery, than in surrounding creeks.
His family leased the business from the former owner after 2011 and then bought it in 2014.
Over at Brookfield Gardens, the clean-up had already started yesterday but there was a long way to go even though the water did not rise as high.
The nursery’s Wild Canary cafe and restaurant, a longtime favourite in the area, would also be closed for about three to four weeks.
Anna Shand, who runs the family business started by her parents Scott and Robin McLay 14 years ago, said the extent of the flooding was “totally unexpected’’.
“We got the stock up to counter height and if it had stayed at that level there would have been a clean up but not much damage,’’ she said.
“Now, we will lose 80 to 90 per cent of the plants. You can’t bring them back after they’ve been underwater for so long.
“We can’t put a figure on the losses. We have a wholesale nursery, Green Glades, at Lake Cootharaba (on the Sunshine Coast) with two greenhouses but the damage wasn’t too bad there.’’
Ms Shand said it was devastating to go through two floods in such a short time.
“We will get through this with the help of family, friends and the community,’’ she said.
“They came down yesterday to start hosing off plants and the lawn.
“You can get through the main gates today and I expect even more to come through to help.
“We will bring Brookfield Gardens back to what is was, no matter how long it takes.’’
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