Flood forces family on to roof for safety
A Tolaga Bay family who scrambled to the safety of their rooftop during a flash flood say they were woken by the ‘‘jet engine’’ roar of the water.
The couple and their 4-year-old granddaughter had climbed on to the roof about 4am yesterday and were airlifted to safety hours later.
Nina, who didn’t want to give her last name, said that about 3.30am her partner ‘‘jumped up’’ and they could hear water slapping against the house.
It had started coming in but was only a few centimetres deep.
‘‘All of a sudden, just after 4am, it was like a bloody jet engine, it was rumbling towards our house and it was forestry wood, logs and everything crashed into our windows.
‘‘It was coming in and cracking and within 10 minutes it was up to my armpits. So we had to get out.’’
Outside, water was streaming past the house and the current was ‘‘unbelievable’’.
The couple and their granddaughter smashed through a plastic porch roof and climbed on to the roof of the house to escape the floodwaters.
The trio were scared but Nina said they had to keep it together for their granddaughter.
They managed to grab her wetsuit to wear on the roof and took up jackets, blankets and towels, and used a piece of clearlight to keep the rain off.
‘‘To be honest, when it came 7am, I couldn’t believe it. It’s never flooded like this before.’’
‘‘[There was] water as far as the eye could see like a rushing, gushing lake, and just forestry slash, logs, wood everywhere.’’
The flooding washed away Nina’s Nissan Murano, which she bought last week, a digger, a tractor and a trailer.
The family lost everything in the flood and were on the roof for four hours before being rescued by the Eastland Community Trust Rescue Helicopter.
The girl was treated for hypothermia.