SES heroine returns to ruined home
A SES volunteer who had been busy assisting others during the height of the flood has returned home to find her own unit inundated by water.
Nicky Anderson had been working around the clock to keep the people of Townsville dry, at the expense of her own Rosslea property.
She eventually evacuated her Welsh St rented unit on Saturday night after losing power, but never anticipated the water to rise as high as it did.
“I was doing 12-hour shifts and coming home of a night time,” she said. “I’ve been wet for a week basically. Pretty much my feet were white and wrinkly. We just didn’t have a dry day, it was just part of the job.
“We were doing height crews, so we were going around just tarping people’s roofs and trying to keep everyone as dry as possible.
“Because I was SES focused I wasn’t really worried about myself, and I didn’t really think the water would reach me, but it did.”
Ms Anderson returned home on Tuesday to find her property a mess.
“I was in a bit of a shock state,” she said. “The water has gone probably about ankle deep all the way through. Anything that was on the floor, electrical goods, beds, couches, I’ve lost it all. Thankfully, I’m one of the insured people.”
Ms Anderson said being on the ground took her mind off her own property.
“I should have been a bit smarter and put sandbags on my place, but it’s the fact that I’m out there helping people, and the fact that it’s been able to take my mind off everything that’s going on here … it was a bit of a mental saviour for me, SES,” she said.
An army of friends yesterday helped Ms Anderson clean the apartment.