10 years ago today the Ipswich region was under water. The small town of Grantham had been washed away and many people had been killed. My house soon became under threat from these rising flood waters.

I left work early and by the time I got home the rain was bucketing down. The water was running off next doors property and I tried desperately to divert the water from going through the garage and along the side of the house. The garden was a quagmire and the ground was so wet that it was liquid.

About 3.30pm the rain eased and while I was surveying the mess the police came to the house and told me that I would have to evacuate, I couldn’t believe it…………..

I looked out over the park behind the house and I could see that the water was already covering half of the park. A friend came down to see me and said that I could stay at his place. We went upstairs to the house and he suggested that we lift everything up to higher ground just in case, I laughed at this idea and thought he was taking the piss but as it turned out this saved me a lot of time and money. I never thought for one minute that the water would reach the second story of my house, but it did.

The flood waters rose very slowly; this flooding was very different from the waters that wiped Grantham off the map. The waters took a long time to rise and it was almost like a form of water torture. Little by little the water climbed up the walls of the house.

Neighbours told me that the 1974 flood had been worse and that the waters still had a long way to go yet before they would begin to drop. I had resigned myself to the fact that I would have a bit of damage and was hoping that the waters would stay out the main part of the house, which is the second story, and only go through the garage and I was fairly confident at this stage, but I think I just wanted to hear some good news.

The next morning after breakfast I walked down to the house. I stayed with Danny and Maria, their house was only a five-minute walk back down the hill. At about 8am the water was about a metre deep and had reached the downstairs windows.

I stood there with others in the street as we all watched the incremental advance of the water. Putting a stone on the road in front of the rising waters and seeing how quickly that it was reached. Two or three centimetres was covered in just a few minutes which is absolutely staggering if you think of the area that this flood was covering.

By mid-afternoon the water was just below the floor boards and I was praying to Poseidon to shut the taps off, but the water didn’t stop, but I was still hopeful.

A few hours later it had covered the floor and was reaching the windows of the second story. Mick’s house next to mine on the down side of the hill was already ¾ submerged. A group of us just stood inches in front of the water checking to see if it was still rising.

In the late afternoon, while we chatted and looked at the amazing vista of this new landscape before us we all suddenly realised that the water had stopped rising Before us was an expanse of water, an inland sea which had eaten up houses and left TV ariels, trees and telegraph poles standing to attention in the middle of this vast ocean. The waters were calm and the sun was hot and to be honest it did have a certain tranquility and beauty.

The small stones that we had put in front of the advancing waters were still dry and it really looked as if there was a slightly bigger gap than there had been a few minutes ago……………the tide was finally beginning to turn. But it was only when the waters finally receded did we see the damage that had taken place………..even although this water stealthily attacked our neighbourhood it still bought heartache and destruction to many

The next morning, we drove down to the house to discover that the waters had dropped significantly and we pulled into the driveway which was still covered by about 100mm of water. I opened up the garage door and couldn’t believe the mess, benches were upturned or flipped on their ends and there was a thick layer of ooze.

Outside the water heater had been ripped off the wall and the pipe work was bent and twisted. The garden was covered in a thick layer of the same ooze.

I was dreading to look upstairs by this time because the reality of the situation was finally starting to sink in. Most of my furniture is solid timber and so it survived ok. There was a tide mark throughout the house on the walls and furniture and the carpets were just disgusting. I felt helpless and overwhelmed by what lay before me.

I came back downstairs and already friends were pulling anything that could be salvaged out of the garage and putting it to one side. Someone was hosing out the garage and pavers out the back to get rid of that ooze before it baked hard under the summer sun. It was hot and steamy, the sun was shining and the sky was blue.

I think it was on the second or third day the firemen stopped by the house and asked if I needed anything hosed out and I said yes, could they hose out the shed at the bottom of the garden…………..that was quite a spectacle.

Strangers as well as neighbours lended a hand and brought cups of tea and comforting words. On the third day of the clean-up a Brazilian guy stopped by with a large pot of homemade curry, it was delicious. Another day a Ute with some pretty girls on the back handed out water.

The mounds of rubbish on the street were increasing and so were the many tradesmen who were in short supply. I called my plumber, Shane, and he came and got the hot water connected and checked the gas connections and things. At Mick’s house there was an electrician with many guys and I asked him if he could come to my place when he had a chance. There was so much electrical damage and one of the bigger items was the air conditioner and I was lucky enough to buy one so that the electrician could install it.

The electricians were at the house for two days as they repaired the damage and also put in some new lights around the place but it took nearly ten days until the power was finally switched back on. I was really surprised that the remote garage door still worked along with the solar panels.

The council came along one day and cleared all the rubbish that had been dumped, mind you there were also the scavengers out and about picking their way through the detritus……………..me included. I picked up a metal rack from my next door neighbour and it’s still in my shed to this day.

The flood was traumatic and at the same time an amazing experience although painful at times but the worst part I think for me and for many others was having to deal with the Insurance companies. I was with RACQ and they would not pay out because they said that it was a rain event and not a flood and they gave me a compassionate payment of $12,400. The cost of the electrician and plumber and air conditioner was already around $5500 and there was so much more to take care of.

The stress and suffering that we were put under by insurance companies like RACQ was intense. Other insurance companies paid out my next door neighbours and they just got on with the rebuild. Assessors were on the ground within a few days and repairs were set in motion, meanwhile myself and Mick were wondering where we would get the money to repair our houses.

I was off work for a month; my blood pressure was through the roof. I was depressed and didn’t know how I was going to fund the repairs. I was not enjoying work and with everything else going on it felt like a very dark time in my life.

One day in October on the way back from work, I received a call from RACQ and they told me that they had re-evaluated my claim and they would now send out an assessor, this was only because they had come under a lot of pressure from the public, government and other business bodies. I was stunned and elated at the same time and also a bit pissed off because I had started to repair things myself whereas if I had had the insurance money at the beginning I would have done things differently.

As it turned out in the end I got a very generous cash settlement and I also received government compensation and so for a time there I thought that I had won lotto………..the bank balance was full once more and I could now use that cash in any way I saw fit.

I’ve seen many others over the years being flooded and I can sympathies and empathies with them, especially having gone through it myself. Whether it be by fire or flood the consequences of such an event can stay with you for years and even the unity of the community gives you hope that humanity is not dead and still has a heart but you are quickly brought back to reality when the insurance companies try to do everything they possibly can to wriggle free of their obligations by trying to split hairs within the wording of the policy.