Gympie family kayaks to safety after home taken by floods

A family of five, including a mother fighting cancer, was forced to flee their home in kayaks and watch in horror as it was swallowed by the worst Gympie flood in living memory.

A Gympie family of five, including a mother fighting cancer, was forced to flee to safety in kayaks after their home was swallowed by rising floodwaters.

Rachel Baade and her husband Quentin have lived in their Gympie home for 16 years.

In just hours however, everything was destroyed.

A GoFundMe was started by their friend Chenoa Trama, who told The Gympie Times what the family went through.

A Gympie family of five, including a mother fighting cancer, was forced to flee to safety in a kayak after their home was swallowed by rising floodwaters.. Photo: GoFundMe

Mrs Trama said the family had spent Saturday, February 26, watching the flood waters steadily rise around their two-storey home when it suddenly became engulfed.

They were then forced to make a life-and-death choice, and had to flee their home in kayaks strung together.

“When they kayaked out, the water was three quarters of the way up their stairs and into their second storey,” Mrs Trama said.

“I don’t think they realised it would get that high.”

They fled to their neighbours, where Mrs Trama said she understood they stayed until they could safely return to their home the following day.

Rachel Baade and her family flee their flooded home in kayaks during Gympie’s floods. Photo: GoFundMe

However, there was almost nothing to come back to.

Mrs Trama said the waters were so high, the family watched one of their water tanks float away.

“She said she just ‘watched in absolute horror’ (sic). She said to me ‘I cannot fathom how a full water tank floats away,” she said.

Ms Baade took to Facebook to document the destruction, and said in a post on Sunday, February 27, the family had lost their house and everything in it to the floods.

“We have each other and we are safe and that’s really the main thing … but hard to watch it all go,” she wrote.

When the family returned to their home, water had inundated their first floor and was sitting below their kitchen benchtops.

The inside of the family’s home with floodwaters lapping against the top of the benchtops. Photo: GoFundMe

On Monday, February 28, Mrs Baade shared the confronting aftermath of the clean-up.

“We have lost all the beds, cupboards, duchesses and couch, lots of our clothes … the whole kitchen,” she wrote.

But they were not alone, with an army of friends, neighbours and strangers helping to strip the interior of the house.

Mrs Trama described Ms Baade and her family as “beautiful” and said Ms Baade, who has been fighting cancer for two years, was well known in the equestrian community in Gympie and the Sunshine Coast.

Photos: Gympie’s devastating flood damage revealed

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“Lots of people know her story with cancer, and they literally can’t seem to catch a break,” she said.

“Rachel always has a big smile on her face. You see her out and about and she’s got this big beaming smile, she loves to have a chat … she’s dealt with so much but she’s got such a great outlook on life.”

A GoFundMe started by Mrs Trama to help the family get back on their feet had reached $1230 after less than 24 hours of being active.

The Gympie Times has reached out to Ms Baade for comment.

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Originally published as Gympie family kayaks to safety after home taken by floods