Trying Not To Drown In The Middle Of The 2022 Eastern Australian Flood

Help And Support Are Needed!

In my last article I was mentioning the flood that was supposed to come to my area and how this existential threat somehow helped me to overcome my usual fears and anxieties, as it brought me back to the things that truly matter. Back then I still thought the flood wouldn’t be that bad. No one thought.

I hadn’t slept much the night before and was having nightmares about floods and water everywhere. I woke up with a bad gut feeling that didn’t want to go away for the rest of day. The day started with me telling one of my best friends about my feelings. It had rained heavily for the last night and was supposed to continue for the rest of the day, peaking in the night of Sunday.

My friend was not very worried at this point and drove to Byron Bay, 20 mins away from Mullumbimby. A few hours later I got a message saying that she drove into floodwater on the way back. Her car stopped working and she had to get towed away. It continued to rain. My bad feeling continued.

I live in a small cabin next to a creek. There’s a metal roof and any rain falling on it is extremely loud. Heavy rain makes it sound like you are in the middle of a war zone. It’s safe to say, it is not necessarily something that is calming and not worrying.

My day went on and the rain became heavier and heavier. I got more worried with each minute. The water levels were rising and my neighbours were already cut off from the rest of the town, as their driveway was heavily flooded. The field next to my cabin became a sea.

My partner came over in the night and we stayed awake and watched titanic — what a movie to prepare yourself for a flood. My partner who grew up here was not worried about the water levels and continuously told me how there was nothing to worry about. There was never a big flood here in his lifetime and the rain seemed to have already peaked. That was around 12am. At this point, I went online and checked the announcements. The flood warning that was originally only announced as a minor one got updated to a major one and a flood evacuation warning had been put in place.

The rain became very heavy again and we left to my partner’s to put some things out of the rain that he had forgotten to put away.

2am. My partner lives very close by but on another part of the river. Lower than where I live. We had a look at the river near his house and it was very close to overflow. Maybe 1–2 metres away.

Most of the town seemed to be asleep. My partner was calm. He still was not worried. If the water would overflow, maybe a tiny bit on the street. But surely it won’t reach the house.

We decided to stay at his house as it is built on stilts and seemed a bit more secure.

5am. I started to be extremely tired and just wanted to have a 20min nap. My partner went to the toilet and the toilet started to make weird bubbly noises, same as the sink. Would the water come up through the sink and toilet?

We looked outside and what was all calm and without water a few seconds ago, was suddenly a full hectic river flowing through his garden underneath the house and back on the street.

We quickly put all of his valuables on higher areas in the house and prepared a ladder in case the water would continue to rise and we would have to evacuate on the roof.

There was a big high tide coming in, about to peak at 8am, so we still had a few hours to worry.

Around 7:30am the water finally begann to sink. Somehow the water didn’t make it high enough to reach the house. But we were trapped by water all around us. The neighbours were already flooded in.

The water continued to go down and we decided to go to bed but put an alarm every 30mins to check on the water levels.

After a few hours, we finally went to bed at 10am. When we woke up in the afternoon the water was gone. We drove to my place and saw the destruction in town. Cars were washed into each other, trash and random things washed up everywhere. The town covered in mud and dirt. No phone signal, no internet connection.

My place seemed to be miraculously fine compared to every other house surrounding me which were heavily flooded. I only had a tiny amount of water in my place, but no power or running water. There was a random shipping container washed up in my garden but apart from that, so far everything seemed ok. We grabbed a few things and went back to my partners. It continued to rain and the river levels were still really high. And another high tide was about to come.

In the evening everything repeated itself. With the incoming high tide, town got flooded again.

Today, Wednesday — it has been 2days after the flood. The town is a mess. So many people lost everything. We were extremely lucky, both my partner and me. We only lost a few things and are safe and healthy.

No one knows what is going to happen in the next few days. We had two days of sunshine after the flood but there is more rain about to come tomorrow and over the next week.

The destruction in town is hard to watch. People carry their whole belongings out of their houses. The town looks apocalyptic with all the mud everywhere. There is still only SOS signal and while I am writing this, no internet connection either to contact anyone or get information.

I have friends who are cut off because landslides and huge water amounts made streets and bridges disappear. In one of the other very hard-hit towns, a coworker had to get rescued from the roof of her house. She lost everything and her car got washed away.

It is hard to grasp what has been happening here and seems to continue all down the coast. People lost everything and have to start building up their life from nothing. At the same time, it is incredible to experience the spirit of the community. All the help and support from people.

Update: There is no fuel anywhere atm, we are out of running water at my partner’s house and the rest of the town atm, no phone or internet signal for most parts of the Northern Rivers (we are hot-spotting from a friend’s phone with very patchy internet) and food is limited in the supermarkets because there is no access for deliveries to come through. And there is more rain to come this night.

Even though not much water got into my house and I got really lucky compared to a lot of other people, a lot of my things are already mouldy and unusable. I’m without power or running water and had to move to my partner’s father’s place. I am also out of work at the moment due to limited access to work sites, time I need to clean and help in the community, no phone signal or internet connection (it comes back every second day for a couple of hours).

I usually don’t ask for money, but unfortunately, I am not eligible for any of the flood disaster support payments from the government, as I don’t hold the right visa for it. I still have to pay rent and food though.

If there is anyone with a few spare dollars, I would be extremely grateful if you could donate some money to my buy me a coffee account so I can pay my rent. Due to the limited internet access, I haven’t been able to set up a gofundme page and I also feel a bit bad because others have it so much worse, so I’m just gonna use my existing buy me a coffee account for now and ask for some money to be able to pay my rent. Any little amount would really help me. Everything exceeding my needs will be donated to other people in need who don’t have enough support.

You can also donate money directly to the Red Cross Australia which will use the money to provide humanitarian support to people and communities in Queensland and New South Wales affected by the 2022 floods.

Thanks so so much, Franzi