Our first day as refugees

By 8am we were down at the Ecacentre, the building where all evacuees are gathered.  (I forget what ecacentre means but it's a very large building, part of the school,  for indoor sports and arts.  It's Education, Community and something else, I think.)
It was breakfast time so people were serving themselves and the kids were playing as if nothing untoward had occurred.

We had to register with the Red Cross and fill in forms with DHS and Centrelink.  There were signs and volunteers everywhere.   The helpers guided us from place to place, almost without us knowing.  I felt as if I had wheels underneath me, gliding me from place to place.  Surely all of these people were trained to show empathy and taught the skills of positive listening???   Surely they had all attended workshops and role-played their people skills??  Well, they weren't from one particular organisation, they were from many and as a whole, they hadn't attended any courses.    They were a disassociated group,  neighbours, friends, relations and strangers, all pulling together in the same kindly, understanding direction.

We had lunch there, meeting old and new friends.  Carrot soup, delicious mixed sandwiches and vegetable slice were sent down from the hospital.    Cohuna hospital has always had wonderful cooks.   There's a great variety of fruit set out, also magazines, newspapers and a big fridge full of bottled water, juice and soft drink.   Two enormous water cooled fans are helping to keep the temperature down.  The weather has remained pretty hot.  It was still 22C (72F) when we came into town at 2am.   Today was 29C (84F) and the rest of the week is to get progressively hotter.

We had a chat with our Mayor over lunch.  He's a good bloke and very plain speaking.   He said that he can't see any way that our house can stay out of the water.  OK.  But I bought a very small packet of cereal because I accidentally left mine at home;  it will still be there when I return home ---- and it will be dry.

We took a drive out to our house and were shocked to find water covering half of the road, on the Cohuna side of the bridge.    Amos had built a wonderful levee around his large bails of hay but it was breached and he had built another.    We showered, picked up a few things and left before the excavator trapped us inside the house levee bank, about an hour.   In that short space of time, the water completely covered the road and was running swiftly.  The Piccaninny Creek had spread a long way through the paddocks opposite us and there was water in the salt drain at the front of our drive.  I don't quite know where that came from.
The patch in the levee that Amos and Steve had made, was still holding but had only about 3" before it went over the bank.

Our large, white caravan is clearly visible from the main street and we have had a number of visitors and many phone calls.  It's warming to know that other people care.   If our situation worsens, I hope I don't get caught up in my own misery and forget to care about the others.

We took a few photos earlier on but as time went by we were doing more and taking less.   I'll get around to posting them but something holds me back, for some reason.

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