Paul Lovett in his flooded home in Kelly Road with the water mark on the wall.
It is probably the worst start to a Monday you can imagine, but for many Parkes the nightmare became reality when they woke in the morning with water running through their homes.
“We had ten minutes to get out as the house was filling up so fast,” said David Thompson, who lives in Billabong Crescent.
His mum Bev said she heard the dog barking incessantly but tried to ignore it. “David eventually got up and found the back veranda covered in water.” Although they can see the creek from their home, Bev said it had never ever even reached a bank more than 10m from the house.
“When I opened my bedroom door, water was coming in. I only had time to grab a clean pair of pants and a top as I was still in my nighty.” She said by the time they left the house the water was already knee deep.
Residents gathered at the top of Military Road where there was a dry patch until the water started receding later in the morning.
On Tuesday morning her house was a beehive of activity as the ‘volunteer army of angels’ and the Parkes Fire & Rescue 417 team had come to help clean up. Every piece of furniture, clothing and household item were stacked outside on the lawn as volunteers started washing mud and debris from the house.
Still reeling from the shock of the previous day, Bev was extremely grateful for the love and kindness shown by the community.
A few blocks away in Kelly Road the destruction was even worse with one house in particular that appeared to have been hit by the ‘eye’ of the flood.
Paul Lovett said when he woke up and looked outside he saw water coming to his house. “I tried to push back on my front door from the inside but could not hold it for very long. It was like a torrent running right through the house, eight bricks deep.”
On Tuesday the volunteer army under the leadership of Dooley Thomson carted off truckloads of furniture and household items that had been damaged.
“The worst of all is we had absolutely no warning,” said Paul looking out over his mud covered garden and brown pool. “I don’t even have flood insurance because this area has never been classified as a flood zone.”
Dooley, who lives nearby in Military Road, said he started getting calls from people for help on Monday. He could not believe what had happened and put out a call on social media for volunteers to help with the clean-up from Tuesday.
On Wednesday he had again gathered an ‘army’ and headed off to Eugowra where the flood destruction was a much bigger disaster.
The flood water went right through Paul Lovett’s home leaving even leaving his pool a muddy mess.
The massive task of sorting through everything and cleaning out the mud was made lighter with the ‘volunteer army of angels’ for Bev Thompson.
Corey Thompson with his grandmother Bev and father David with the Parkes 417 Fire & Rescue team who helped to clean up their home in Billabong Crescent on Tuesday.