Flood waters begin to recede in parts of Gippsland

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Karen Whitehurst is the captain of the Newry Fire Brigade and she's exhausted from keeping an eye on the town over the past 24 hours with the flooding and fighting fires earlier this week.

Transcript

00:00 The floods are more or less over now.

00:04 There is still a little bit inundation in the town.

00:08 I'm very sorry. I'm so tired.

00:11 We've been awake for 24 hours

00:14 and I've only had about two hours sleep during that time.

00:17 My husband, who's been with me, he's been awake the whole time.

00:22 Well, I think we can excuse you for being a bit tired then, Karen.

00:26 And so explain for us what you've been doing over the last 24 hours.

00:30 Through the night, my husband and I patrolled the township of Newry.

00:36 Most of yesterday afternoon we did door knocking around Tanamba

00:44 and then around Newry.

00:47 And then once the floodwaters rose, we spent our time in Newry

00:53 just watching and seeing what happens with the floodwaters.

00:57 We were both involved in the 2007 floods,

01:01 so we knew that it rose quickly through then,

01:05 but this time it was a very slow flood.

01:08 Yeah. So did you have to help anyone from their homes or not?

01:12 I'm sorry, I couldn't hear.

01:15 Did you have to help anyone from their homes

01:18 because they were kind of getting a bit concerned about the flood levels

01:21 or because it was so slow it wasn't too bad?

01:25 Most of the residents in town were really great.

01:28 Once we told them about the flood levels rising,

01:33 they were happy to leave and quite a lot were happy to stay.

01:40 We only had one gentleman who was going to stay

01:43 and I was concerned about him, and then about three o'clock

01:47 he came up to the fire brigade and said, "No, I'm leaving,"

01:51 which is fantastic.

01:52 And what can you tell us about the extent of the flooding?

01:58 At this stage, the flooding through town was really good

02:04 compared to the 2007 floods.

02:09 It went a different way to what we usually expect around the town.

02:14 It was - it came into the town, yeah, like I said,

02:18 a different way compared to 2007.

02:22 And so was there water through...

02:23 And it just slowly filled up the creeks around town.

02:25 Yeah. So was there water, like, above the floorboards

02:29 of any properties or not?

02:32 Oh, sorry, I think this phone's going to die.

02:37 Oh, right. Well, we'll try - I'll try once more.

02:40 Yeah, was there water above the floorboards of any homes or not?

02:45 The water has only lapped, like, the doorstep of the three -

02:51 of a lot of homes.

02:53 It didn't enter the actual houses as far as I know at this stage.

02:56 Oh, good stuff.

02:57 But what about the inundation of paddocks around town

03:01 and farmers that have been affected?

03:04 Yeah, I'd say that there's a lot of farmers affected by these floods.

03:09 There always is and there was a lot in 2007.

03:13 Yeah.

03:15 Yeah, but my husband and I and the brigade mainly concentrated

03:20 in the town.

03:22 Yeah. And the residents.

03:24 And I've heard there's been a bit of discussion about the management

03:28 of the releases from the WEA.

03:30 Have you got any opinion on that, or maybe because you're the captain

03:34 of the local brigade, you're in a bit of a funny situation

03:37 with commenting on something like that?

03:40 I think this year, the second floods, compared to the floods in 2007,

03:47 I think Southern Rural Water did a fantastic job...

03:50 OK. ..with the way they handled it.

03:53 We didn't get really inundated.

03:56 They kept us up to date.

03:58 SES were fantastic in helping us.

04:02 The local ICC centre was great

04:05 and also the local police were fantastic as well.

04:09 So all agencies were so helpful this time around.

04:14 And, Karen, you say you're pretty tired from going 22 hours

04:18 out of the last 24 hours, but I'm guessing you've been pretty busy

04:21 over the last week because there were the fires burning

04:24 in that area just before the floods, huh?

04:31 Oh, sorry, I can't...

04:33 Yeah, were you battling fires as well?

04:36 You had the fires just before?

04:38 Yes, our brigade went to the fires at Brygalong.

04:43 Yeah. And so they were very busy the day beforehand.

04:48 The second day of those fires, we were at the station.

04:52 There was only a few crews left in the area,

04:56 so we had to stay behind and look after the local area

05:01 while they had strike teams out at the Brygalong fires.

05:05 Yeah, so you've been so busy,

05:07 and this is all voluntary work for you, huh?

05:11 Yes, that's right. Yes, very true.

05:14 Yeah, and so, like, it's people like you

05:16 that make those little communities tick,

05:18 so good on you for everything you've done.

05:21 And I can tell you're so tired.

05:23 Thank you.

05:24 Are you going to have a palmy there tonight at the Neary pub?

05:27 I'm not sure.

05:29 I'm really hanging out to go home, have a hot shower and crawl into bed.

05:32 the bed.

05:34 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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