It’s the invasive mud and the smell, an earthy, sewage mix, that once experienced is never forgotten, that faced a half dozen Lakes Entrance residents who were cleaning up on Sunday after flood waters inundated their houses.
Shaun Wilson woke at 4am Saturday and stepped from his bed into almost knee-deep water that smelt like the toilet had overflowed.
“I was concerned about the power (being on) and putting my feet in the water,“ he said.
He quickly made his way through the murky interior to the power box to shut it off.
The fast-moving current down his street had smashed through his front door leaving it in two pieces. It had knocked over his motorbike leaving it a write-off. It had destroyed his furniture, his children’s toys and most of his possessions.
Shaun moved to Noosa 14 months ago from Sydney with his wife and three children and rented the house (a lucky find after 19 rental applications). Fortunately his wife and children, aged seven, four and two, were enjoying a “getaway weekend in Sydney“.
“We’re very lucky the three kids weren’t here,“ he said.
“The baby’s bed went under.“
Shaun’s first thought Saturday morning was for his 80-year-old neighbour, Joy, and he dashed next door.
The SES got a boat out and took Joy out of her house, he said.
“In two hours we had the water come though the houses and back out again,“ he said.
“Fourteen cars in the street got flooded and were taken away.“
Shaun said people from the community had been very helpful. The landlord who had only lived in the house a year prior to renting it had come to help them clean and offered the family a granny flat to stay in temporarily.
Joy has lived in the street for the past 20 years and went through a previous flood 10 years earlier.
“It was worse this time,“ she said, and being 10 years older and having recently undergone a cataract operation didn’t help.
Joy said she’d lose all her furniture, some that was irreplaceable.
“It ruins everything,“ she said. “My beautiful bedroom is buggered.“
With the help of a friend she was cleaning the mud out of the house and moving her possessions.
She hopes someone will come to her aid and that her insurance will cover temporary accommodation costs.
“There’s no mud army in Noosa,“ she said.
“And I can’t sleep here.“
