REMEMBER WHEN

GOLD COAST BULLETIN Wednesday February 25, 2004

THREE young men narrowly escaped death after flash floods swept them downstream in Mudgeeraba Creek.

The stranded boys held on to tree branches for more than four hours in cold flooded waters while fire crews, SES and police came to their rescue.

Chris Duvall, 16, and Gordon Johnston, 15, were playing with friends in the creek about 5pm when the log they were standing on shifted beneath them and they fell in.

The floodwaters swept them 50m downstream and luckily both boys managed to grab hold of a tree protruding from the swollen creek until help arrived.

Gordon’s brother Gary Kalocsai, 27, was the first to hear the cries for help and ran to the creek to save them while his mother Lexi phoned emergency services.

“I got a rope and little raft and thought that would do the trick but the current was too strong and the water was rising and I got caught out there myself,” said Mr Kalocsai.

“If I had not grabbed the tree the boys were holding, I would have been in a worse situation than them.”

Mr Kalocsai said that even though the boys were battling ‘freezing’ water they were relatively composed while they waited for emergency personnel to rescue them.

“I am pretty tired and I do not have much left. I need to sit down because I am very shaky,” he said.

Emergency crews were quick to arrive on the scene as they were investigating an earlier flood-related incident at The Glades golf course across the Pacific Highway.