Mid-North Coast flooding: Families in evacuation centres tell their harrowing tales
Heartbreaking tales of flood victims whose homes were destroyed in a matter of minutes by rising flood waters has shed a light on the ongoing struggle on the Mid-North Coast
Mid-North Coast
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As the Mid-North Coast battles an unprecedented flood crisis, caused by a once in a century downpouring of rain, thousands of people have been displaced from their homes unsure what they will be going back to.
TheMid-North Coast News has spoken to residents inside evacuation centres, and people who returned to their homes for the first time as they struggle to come to terms with an unprecedented weekend.
HOMES OBLITERATED IN TELEGRAPH POINT
Three hours is all it took for flood waters to obliterate homes in Telegraph Point when the Wilson River broke its banks and barraged its way into the area without warning.
Three generations of the Mitchell family were among the worst-hit members of the town of 700, about a 20 minute drive from Port Macquarie on the Mid-North Coast.
Andrew Mitchell had just made it back home from work about 1pm. By 4pm, he was saving his Mum and Dad’s life.
“About lunch time the water started building up in the paddocks, then by about 2.30pm it was probably just over the road,” Mr Mitchell said.
“But within about half an hour, It’s up over the road and up into my house. By 4pm, it was neck high in the house and that’s when I got the boat and had to come and get Mum and Dad out.”
“It was getting to a scary level.”
The quick-thinking 27-year-old launched his fishing boat from his car trailer parked at the club across the road and rounded up about eight people and two dogs, before docking at the Telegraph Point Recreation Club as the water began to swallow the main street.
Access to town was cut for two days, before the river water receded on Monday and left a trail of destructive sludge and catastrophic damage strewn across properties.
“It got to about a metre from the top of my [two-storey] balcony,” he said. “But underneath, it’s completely trashed.”
“It you were standing in the middle of the yard there, you wouldn’t have been able to reach out of the water, that’s how high it was.
“We’re talking lounges, beds, computers, TV’s, fridges, washing machines, and a lot of storage down there [ruined] … but it’s nothing compared to what these guys [Dad Milton, and brother-in-law Chris Langenbaker] have lost.
Andrew and his father Milton grew up in the home at 193 Mooney St, before Andrew moved away and came back to buy two doors down at number 189.
His Dad grew up in the house in between at 191, which now belongs to Andrew’s sister and brother-in-law.
“Dad grew up in that house there, then moved into this house. I grew up in the house where Dad lives now, then moved into my place … we’ve been in the area a long time.
While he said his house can be saved, it’s a different fate for the other two.
“Those two houses [191 and 193], will have to be knocked down … you won’t be able to repair them,” he said.
“The walls are already bending. Dad’s shed got washed away, the caravan got moved over there … the water went up to the windows, you can see the flood line just above it.”
Further down the street, Krysia Mailo and husband Tony Mailo, wasted no time in ridding their 140-year-old home of its destroyed contents.
The couple and their son, Ben, were at a nearby beach on Friday to get a breather from the rain, before they noticed another big front approaching.
“We thought it might come up a little bit but we’d be alright,” Mrs Mailo said. “We’ve had weather warnings similar in the past and not much has come of it.
“We were just going about our normal day and about 11am thought maybe I should walk the horses out. I rang my friend and we moved the horses about five minutes away. I was gone about 15 or 20 minutes and when I got back, the water had come up the paddock and was already climbing up the back stairs.
“Suddenly, it was coming up the back of the house and I yelled out to mum saying ‘we’ve got to go, we’ve got to get out.’
“It was just so fast … it was like 45 minutes from thinking it’s going to be alright, to, let’s get out of here.
“Suddenly, it was right through the place. Everyone was in the same position ... it was just incredible how high it went.
“It’s ripped up floor boards that we’ve put down, and wall linings and new areas of the house that we’ve built.
“This house is about 140-years-old, so it’s stood the test of time … but all our furnishings, all our belongings are trashed as you can see. We’ll have to re-do floors … I don’t know what else, we will just have to do one bit at a time.
She said without the support of family and friends who helped in the clean-up, they’d still be “standing here crying and shaking our heads”.
“We’ve had about 15 people come around who just got in and helped and did not even stop for a break, just scraping mud out.
“We’ll get there, we’re just not sure how long it’ll take or what to do next, really.”
A GoFundMe page has been established to help get the Mitchell family back on their feet. To donate, head to https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-vick-mitch-rebuild-their-home.
FIRST ON THE NORTHERN BEACHES, AND NOW DUNBOGAN
The devastation of the Mid-North Coast floods has reduced a young couple to the depths of despair, with the pair enduring their second major flooding event in just 12 months.
Kris Preussner, 36, and his fiancee Katrina Leighton, 27, had just relocated to Dunbogan, near Port Macquarie, after spending the last eight months sleeping and eating out of the back of their 4WD while travelling through South Australia.
The couple had been living in Bayview, Sydney, at the beginning of last year when a major storm ripped through their property and decimated their northern beaches home.
With nowhere to go, they took a trip down south, before finally settling on the Mid-North Coast — where they planned to raise a family.
“We’d just bought all new furniture in the past six months and Dunbogan was somewhere we were planning to establish our lives,” Mr Preussner said.
“The house we’re in we are just renting … but it’s not the house, it’s everything in it … we’ve just lost it all.”
At 7pm Friday night, the couple were given their orders to leave along with everyone in Bell St.
Mr Preussner threw a mattresses in the back of the car and moved all their belongings to higher ground inside, before they drove out and escaped the deluge about 8pm.
“We came to the [Laureiton] evacuation centre, but the downstairs was flooded in there as well, so we went back to the house to see if we could get some more stuff, but I couldn’t get down my street,” he said.
“I just parked at the end of the street and watched the water in 20 minutes eat the whole house.
“I went in the next morning and got a lift on the jet ski. I was optimistic that the house wasn’t going to be underwater … but I had to swim into the lounge room, it was too late. The place is just trashed.”
The couple took their seven-month old Kelpie Mac, their phones, and the clothes they were wearing.
“We’ll now just be living in the car again. We’re homeless, we’ve got nowhere to go.”
It is the second time in a year the pair, who are both jobless, have lost their livelihoods due to flooding.
“The first time was just before coronavirus and the place we were renting in Bayview,” Mr Preussner said.
“We just had a massive storm and we copped the brunt of it.”
They said their landlord would not repair the place.
Ms Leighton said their lives are “on hold all over again”.
“The plan was to get married and start a family, that was what was going to happen in about a year … but it’s on hold all over again,” she said.
“It’s literally like last year, it’s deja vu … we’re stuck in the car and we’ve got nothing, no money, nowhere to live and no accommodation.”
Their story is one of thousands that people are living, including 57-year-old Donna Luck.
Huddled up in the temporary refuge of the Laurieton evacuation centre, the Brigadoon resident abandoned her relocatable home at the nearby caravan park where the water was nearly waist high when she left.
She managed to escape with a menagerie of animals including her disabled rabbit Munchkin, her service dog and lorikeets. What she left behind, though, are cherished memories and collectables she’ll never be able to replace.
“I left my photos, books, and a complete Elvis collection of CD’s which were unopened,” she said.
“They were collectables.”
“I did manage to get my two watches and my animals, and I grabbed some medication because I had that ready to go.”
Getting back home to survey the damage, though, is a moment she won’t be looking forward too.
“It won’t happen any time soon,” she said
“Not until the police give me the OK.
“But really, what are we going back too? None of us have got any beds or anything to sleep on.
“It’s very sad.”
IN HER OWN WORDS: DONNA LUCK
“The day before the warnings went out I thought I was going to be alright.
The water was rising, but it wasn’t that bad. I thought I’d be able to stay with my animals and that we’d be a fine.
About 7pm on Friday night it started coming through my place at Brigadoon Holiday Park and I’m fairly high up as well. But the next morning about 5am I thought, no, this is not OK, so I rang my partner and he rang the SES and I hadn’t heard anything so I rang the police and they said they’d try get to me as quick as they could.
They got me out yesterday and it was up to my knees. I got straight into the boat and by the time I left I reckon it would have been up to my waist, not long after.
There were things floating around inside the house like CD’s, blankets, bedding.
I evacuated with four rabbits, one bird and a dog. There’s four birds back at Brigadoon in an office, because I couldn’t take them on the boat with me.
It was quite stressful. I’ve already got complex post traumatic stress syndrome, chronic anxiety and depression so I’m having my moments.
I won’t be able to go back. I’m going to have to relocate my partner’s place in Wallis Lake.”
IN HIS WORDS PETER HAGNEY: I DIDN’T THINK IT WOULD RISE SO FAST
I didn’t think the river was going to rise so quickly, it just caught us by surprise.
The water was already about 50mm under the front veranda about 3am on Saturday morning when we were going to get evacuated to the bowling club, which is only four doors up the street from where we live.
We could hear the water splashing underneath the floor boards, and that’s when we got a text and call to tell us to evacuate, but we didn’t because it sounded like a hoax call, so I ignored it … that was a bit stupid, I won’t do that again.
By that time there were people already being evacuated in small boats out of houses and on to the street and the outboards were going – that’s how deep it was, and they took them to the North Haven Bowling Club.
They finally picked us up about three or four hours later and that’s when we left and a bus was arranged to take us to the evacuation centre here in Laurieton.
It’s really very hard to take because you know that both your vehicles are under and your house is under.
It’s going to be hard. We’ve got insurances and stuff like that but the reputation from insurance companies and floods, it will be tough.
It just caught be off guard. In hindsight, we could have been better prepared.
EVACUATION CENTRES FILLING UP:
Many of those who have been rescued have been displaced from their homes completely and evacuated to centres at Laurieton and Port Macquarie with just the shirts on their back.
The centres are filling fast, and those that are there are now three days into their stay without any clean items of clothing.
Residents emergency evacuated out of homes via boat across the Mid-North Coast are telling the tale of a horror 48 hours which has left all of them uncertain about the state of their properties.
North Haven resident Dennis Scott said his mobile started ringing at 2am.
“They told us to keep an eye on everything … when we looked outside the water was inches from the top step,” he said from the SES evacuation centre at Port Panthers.
“I reckon it was about six inches away before it would have started going in to the house.
“The police came around with a raft and the woman and man from next door to us where put in the inflatable raft, then they came to us and it was knee deep then.
“They put us up in it then took us to the bowling club because we couldn’t get to Laurieton, so they took us up here [to Port Panthers].
“We don’t know anything, if our house is OK, if the river’s gone down or whether the house has been flooded – we wouldn’t have a bloody clue.”
Neighbour Dianne Matthews and her husband Brian, said they got evacuated at the same time.
“We all got in the rubber Dinghy together,” she said.
“We can’t find out anything that’s going on. When we left it’s just going up to the veranda and we’re worried it’s now in the house.”
Scott and Karen Sharwood, of Port Macquarie, received a call an early Saturday morning to pack up their mobile home at Melaleuca Lifestyle Village and head to Port Panthers.
“Probably about 2.30am in the morning the manager came around knocking on the door saying there’s water in the park. We looked outside and there was water on the road, and coming up the mobile homes.”
“Everyone was getting things ready, and what not, SES came around with their boats and loaded us up with the dogs.”
“We’ve probably only had an hour or two of sleep … there’s a couple of residents still there but only a matter of two or three inches from going into the verandas and homes.
“That’s when the tide was going out but it’s coming in now … we’re a bit concerned.”
Zoe Jahnsen, 17, was evacuated along with her father, Gary, and their neighbours from the Leisure Tourist Park.
“Last night we got flooded in up to waist deep … there was no call come through until 4am when we got a text that we had to evacuate,” she said.
“It’s probably going to take us a few days to get back home as it’s going to get worse.”
Ian Blakely didn’t even have time to take clothes from his home before leaving.
“I took the wrong bag and had to pick up some clothes from Lowes,” he said.
Read related topics:NSW floods
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