Sunday, June 6, 2010

The floodwaters are receding



We took some time out on Thursday afternoon to go play with (what we thought were) the receding floodwaters. This is a normally small creek / rivulet running under Boatharbour Road, where Tess, Yarrow and Briony's school bus normally goes. Good fun for playing in.

But then the water actually rose again Thursday night as I was bringing Yarrow to and from music lessons, and I was very worried that we would be cut off from home as the Wilsons River broke its banks. The water came as high as the door sill on the car on Eltham Rd. Luckily the Forester made it though the water, though not without some palpitations on my side! If it had been an inch higher I would not have dared cross. (I've been swept off a road by floodwaters before, and it's very scary!). By midnight the same stretch would have been under more than a metre of water...

By the Friday the little creek crossing shown on the photo was absolutely impassable and the school bus had to turn back.

Wilsons River peaked at about 8 metres above its normal height. Today's screen capture from the Bureau of Meterology river heights data website shows the amazingly rapid rise in river height.

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