St Helens Flood

Monday, 26 February 2024

Six on Murray has been solidly rented out since the 2nd half of December until a week or so ago - which has been great for us but I've been missing it and the garden was in dire need of some maintenance.   So despite having only spent one night at home recently due to a work trip to Melbourne, I packed my bags and bike and went straight there after an orienteering event near Oatlands.  I tried to encourage Jon, Zali and Jett to come but they all had work commitments so I was solo. 

The first few days went as planned - I worked hard in the garden and in the house - mowing, weeding, watering, planting and generally cleaning and restoring the house after the busy summer.  I also squeezed in a nice run and a lovely ride.

On Tuesday night the rain came.  Enough to give the garden a good soaking and discourage me from going for a run in the morning. It also encouraged this huntsman to seek shelter in the window (thankfully still on the other side of the fly screen):

I sat down to work at 9am and by lunchtime the rain was really picking up as was the thunder and lightening which was crashing all around. I kept working away while it bucketed down and it was only a large BANG and the power going out (and internet going down) that finally dragged me away from my desk to go downstairs to gaze at the rain. 

As I stood on the front doorstep I was surprised at how much rain was gushing through the garden - cutting deeply through our pathway and relocating our mulch and pebbles.  It was then that I also noticed that a lot of rain was pouring OUT of the garage roller door.  Which struck me as both odd, and alarming - how could that be? - the rain was outside - had I left a tap on?

No I hadn't.  A quick walk around revealed that the rain was pouring down from the houses and streets behind us, through our garden and to the back door and into the back of the garage (as well as under the rest of the house), exiting out the front. 

This had created quite a mess in the garage. When I opened it up water streamed out, leaving a few centimetres of water all over the floor.  I tried to block the water from the back door as much as I could and it was starting to ease off anyway, so it didn't get any worse. With my phone going flat I let work know I was going to need the afternoon off and I got started on the cleanup.

The photo below is after I'd swept a lot of it outside.

I had to move everything and pull up all the vinyl floor plank things and the carpet and foam mats which were floating around.  Thankfully the concrete dried out really quickly, and because the floor was just carpet and vinyl extras, nothing was stuck down, so I could take it all outside to dry off. 

I still had no power but I got that sorted by using the reverse charging abilities of the Atto (which was 100% charged at that point). The power remained off for 24 hours but using a long extension cord I could power my devices, the microwave and my work setup the next day. 

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Lots of businesses got flooded in St Helens that day and there was a lot of damage to the roads and walking paths. I went to the street behind us to see why the water was coming down and found that there was an even bigger mess there - failed storm water drains had funnelled the water down the driveways of the houses behind and sent it to us and our neighbours who lost a fair bit of their garden. By the end of the day I reckon there was a lot of road materials and mulch in Georges Bay.  

I got to go for a ride a few days later, but the rest of my time was spent working and drying the garage. The sun came out which made it easier and I moved the carpet squares all around the garden to catch as much heat as possible. By the time I left everything was miraculously back to normal:

The event was inconvenient for sure but I am so grateful I was actually in St Helens at the time (with the new car), otherwise we wouldn't have even thought to suspect we would get flooded - our next guests (arriving tomorrow), would have been in for quite the shock!