Central Coast Weather NSW

[chippydave01]

Hi guys,just got a phone call that my January 2007 holiday site that is shown on my avatar on the left is currently under 2 and a 1/2 foot of water at Budgewoi.Several vans their have a foot of water in them and my mate has just got water starting to come in his annex due to the bad weather lashing the NSW central coast.They have been using the canoe in the van park.Its been the worst weather in 30 years.
Cheers Dave

[Deleted]

Hi Dave

i had to cut short my stay at wintersun.
Trish rang thursday night to say we had about 1 metre of very fast running water in our yard.
her asnd Joel worked fo an hour in waist deep water to get our old motorbikes up into the house. thay still had electricity at 8.00pm but she rang back to say that they had blacked out by around 9.00pm.
The watewr was up on the verandah and we had about 20mm to go before the waater entered the house. it was lapping at the floorboards,
Bloody difficulyt to help out when ya 600miles away!!!
Rang her again by mobile at midnight and the water had dropped . it was still a mtere deep through my sheds,
Matilda went under. The morris was up aginst tha shed with water in the headlights.

I left saturday morning and droive back to Nambucca heads. i was too zonked out from lack of sleep and worry to drive home.
stayed the night with friends got home about 2pm sunday. Trish and the boys had done a great job and hosed out the shed, cleaned up most of the 2" of silt all over the yard.
The pool is chockers with mud. 2 massive big stringy barks had fell into the yard destroying the fences. the back fence has collapsed ito the creek,
Matilda has about 2" of stinking brown silt in her. the engine bay in the morris is full of grass and sticks... ya can hardly see the motor. I checked the oil... its almost white.
Will have to drain engine, gearbox and diff and fill it up with fresh stuff before i try and od anything with it.

Looks like a fulll day with the chainsaw and mulcher . A quick tally off the losses .
mower, whipper snipper, welder, compressor, pool pump and filter, back and side fence.... we will monitor matilda and see just how much she swells and buckles once ii shovel the mud out, mop her up and let her dry out.

we consider ourselves blessed. the house over the back fence and the one on our right side had a foot of water through it . houses down the street towards the bridge had water half way up their windows.
We got power back on last night around 9.00.

bottom line
All is well at the Reddos. No one sick , missing or injured.
We will nurse the morris and Matilda back to good health.

Would like to thank Don Ricardo for his pm and concerns about our wellbeing.
Thanks mate.

Wintersun was great. see report under " runs and events"
Reddroughtsover

[firefighter]

Hi Reddo
sorry to here about you bad luck at home , just as well the wife & son was home to start saving the bikes,now the hard work cleaning up & repairs i know australia needs the rain but not in one area at once
known you .....you will get on top of it & remember some body will be worse off than you
Geoff ;D ;D

[cobber]

You were in our thoughts Reddo old mate, knowing you had a creek at your back fence, and seeing TV footage of what was going on in the main street you would have been lucky to escape unscathed.
As you say, it could have been worse, but what you have copped is not pleasant.

Regards,
Cobber.

[Geoff & Jude]

Hi Reddo & Trish,

Our thoughts have been with you over the past few days, knowing you had a creek at your back fence we figured you would have been right in the thick of it all. After seeing all the TV reports of the devastation in your area, you must feel lucky it wasn't worse.

We've also been wondering if Humpty, Spyder and all are OK.

No doubt you will work your butt off & get it all sorted, keep us all posted on how things are progressing.

Best wishes to Matilda for a full & speedy recovery to her former beauty .

As you said Reddo , the most important thing is Trish & Joel are safe & well,

Jude & Geoff

[sportsman 1]

Hi Reddo,

sorry to hear you have suffered somewhat. Great that no one is hurt and I am sure you will have all back to normal in record time.

Best wishes,

Leigh & Karon

[Administrator]

From the West .................

we've been watching news reports all weekend on the awesome Central Coast storms and the devastation caused , and have been thinking of Reddo and others caught up in it ......

Hope everyone is OK, and things return to normal asap....

Reddo, you would've wished for a millisecond that Matilda was a Sunliner instead of a Bondy

Mark

[fbmad]

G'day Reddo,

We were wondering how you were going with all the water and wind.I thought you might get some water in the backyard but not a metre of it .

Will give you a quick phone call this arvo.I've got a few days off toward the end of the week and could come down and give you a hand if you want.

Regards

Terry and Grum ( Theresa )

[ukbrian]

Reddo

I was a way for the Weekend in my caravan and those with me were complaining about the two ten minute thunderstorms we had, when I read in the Sunday papers of the floods in Oz.

My immediate hope was that none of my friends on VV were affected. Of course I am sorry to learn of the damage you have experienced but glad to hear that your house wasn't affected.

Perhaps the cold and damp English climate isn't so bad after all, we seldom get the extreme climate incidents that you just had.

Brian

[Deleted]

Hi Guys
Been hangin off a chainsaw all day and just checked the forum out
I have just read through the comments from you guys and i cant believe what a great bunch of people i have got involved with here.
A have also recieved a few pms and phone calls from forum members offering to come and lend a hand .
what can ya say....... Aint like me to be lost for words but i am.
Doesnt seem that long ago that we here on the forum where going through a bit of a hissy crisis.
Had a few people make comments that we should stick to vintage van banter only.
Comments like why the stuff wish someone a "happy Birthday" where being bagged.

Well folks i hope the boneheads that made that comment are reading the replys to chippy daves account of the weather and my first hand account of whats happened around here.

Perhaps they might get a better understanding about what having mates and being an Australian is all about. ... MATESHIP.... Its something ya cant buy . Its something ya earn through caring about others and offering a kind word when you feel its justified. Its all too easy to be a winging bastard and moan about everything that dont suit ya. Ok then if ya aint to shit hot on the keyboard and ya lifes that busy that busy a bit of banter errodes too much of ya day away then i apologise.
But its times like this that real mates come to the surface.

True ... things could have been a lot worse ....trish , Joel and i are blessed that the water pulled up less than 10mm from running through the house and stuffing everything. I dont wanna dwell on my misfortune ... far from it... i just want each and everyone of yas ta think about the crap that has been thrown around at times and ask yaselves ... is it really that important in the big picture . Naaa.... its not is it
Sorry for sounding so damn uppitty in the middle of a story but it aint until yave been through a bit of this sort of drama that ya can sit back and compare apples with sour grapes... nuff said .


Heres a few piccies of the yard . I had the good camera away at wintersun so Joel used the old clunker to real off a few (un)happy snaps during the night..


Morry ... somewhere down the back yard....about 1 hour after the water peaked. ( sorry Lulu) it had been picked up by the water and carried up the yard. It all happened that quick that there was no time to shift things to higher ground. The creek rose about 2 metres in 5 mimutes. The cliplock fence was hiding what was about to happen.


If ya look close on the left side of the picture ya can see just how close we went. the water is lapping on the aluminium sliding door track... millimetres off comin through the ranch. Trish and Joel ahd already wrestled the 2 nortons into the loungeroom from down tthe shed. The 2 bikes in the picture areLuke and Joels XR250 and Yammy YZ 250 trailbikes . They ended up inside as well... alas no room for Matilda.


Good job i got rid of "April , May and June" the three Isa Brown Chooks earlier in the year. This big stringy bark fell through the fence right where the chooks roost use to be and clouted the big peppercorn tree out of the ground.


lookin from the back corner up the yard towards matilda.

Matilda was lifted and planted against the wall of the shed. the 2 trees pulled up about a foot off the carport....' tilda shit her pants you can just see the tide mark behind the jockey wheel.

Spent the day with the chainsaw and the bro turned up with a $148 GMC electric mulcher. I honestly didnt think it would see out 1 hours use. we started about 11 and it was still swallowing branches at 4 oclock. How do ya pay back a bloke that continually turns up and busts a gut for ya everytime ya call for help. i owe him thousands by now.. Thanks jeff ;D
i used all the small stuff off the tree up to about 40mm thick to mulch the gardens.
The council is gunna take the rest if i stack it out the front... or maybe keep it for next years firewood...... or perhaps i could keep mulching it and sell it to the neighbours as 'Potporrie"..

Just the shot ta overcome the smell of a rotting rottweilller under your house

Gunna tackle the morry and the misus '88 celica tomorrow. oil changes and rip the interiors out to mop up and dry out.... aaaaahhhhhh... nothing like a week off work relaxing at your favorite resort

Reddo

[lulu]

Reddooooo

Just sent you a PM "BEFORE" i saw these pics! OMG
Noooo not the RR

Obviously glad youre all ok but geezzzz the poor Morry *sniff*

Take Care & Goodluck everyone & the clean up. Will be a big one

LuLu

[scootman]

Hmmm not good Reddo but at least at the end of it will all dry out. Bit reminiscent of my mate Larry. If your gonna put your stuff out for the council. Ignore what they say about leaving it on the footpath and put it on the edge of the road. They will take weeks if not months to collect it and in the meantime things grown in your lawn and what lawn is underneath it will die.
Scoot

[cobber]

Gees, I'm sorry Reddo, I have to admit I have been praying for rain (Johny told me to ).
You got a mess there mate, and you haven't told us about the pool yet.
Big trees like that one you have can be a pain in the butt when they come down, especially in a suburban yard. I have a couple that have fallen in my paddock, and they can stay there until I get the energy to do something about them.....you don't have that luxury, I sympathize.
Morry and Matilda will recover, I'm sure you will make sure of that.
Looks like you almost had a damaged box trailer into the bargain .
Your great attitude to life and your sense of humour will get you through, so hang in there young mate.

Cobber.

[MRFJ55]

MAAAAATE ! Sorry to hear (and see) the bad news . I cant get up to help you but if i can do anything for you and the family in Sydney over the next few days give me a ring . Good luck mate , Regards MAURIE . p.s See you in a few weeks at Blacktown Swap with a few "slightly water damaged " parts !

[hwyman]

Reddo, sorry to see the misfortune you are having up your way. I was thinking ???you may be able to empty the lower cupboards etc. in Matilda and throw plenty of that cheap kitty litter in. Surely this should absorb the moisture quicker and could be vaccumed out later. I think everyone will be trying to get hold of steam cleaning machines up there to do their cars etc.

Hwyman

[Deleted]

Hi Scoot. hwyman and others

Council truck took about 6 box trailer loads of peppercorn tree and stringy bark off the footpath this arvo.
I have spent the last three days hosing out stinking shitty mud in 4 sheds.
Got 6 submerged motorbikes going again today. engine , primary case and gearbox oil on the pommy bikes . The Bultaco and yammy trials just needed a crankcase drain and dry out the aircleaners.
Drained 2 litres of water out of a celica 5 speed i have earmarked for the ute.
Drained 10 litres of milky white crap outta the datto motor in the morry... not a bad effort when the are only suppose to hold 3.2 litres. Joel started it with water up to the headlights and it musta sucked in water via the dipstick. I Filled her up with some cheap oil and a new filter. will run it round for a few days and do the same again with new filter and better qaulity oil.
Still gotta take a look at the gearbox and diff oil .

If its sunny tommorrow i hope to pull the interior out of the morris and dry everything out.

Matilda hasnt "warped" yet. hope to get in there on friday and give her a good flush out and mop up. she seems to be holding up well considering the swampiing and shunting around the carport she copped in the floodwater .
Swimming pool still looks like the yarra river. will get to that on the weekend.

Still got to remove the roof hatch /window on the TD and glue, screw, nail a permanent lid on so i dont drown next time it rains.
Should have known sunroofs in vans are a failure.

Nothing like spending ya holidays in ya own back yard up ta ya balls in mud. .

Last word.. Insurance policy doesnt cover floods
Gunna claim everything drowned in a "horizontal downpour"

Reddo.. from "the shed of inundation"

[baz120y]

Hi Reddo & Trish
on behave of the boys in the BlueMountains sorry for your losses ,we send our best wishes for you both and glade you all are safe. Baz

[fbmad]

True to form, the insurance companies will go over the policy with a fine tooth comb.As soon as you protest, they hit the "caveat emptor " button ( Latin.... buyer beware ) in an effort to wriggle out of coughing up a small proportion of their billions of dollars.

They can be as nice as pie when they want you to take out a policy and most don't want to know you when it comes to making a claim.

Statement made from experience.

Hope you get some money out of them Reddo, I'm not a fan of insurance companies.

Terry.

[Deleted]

Hi Guys.

Its the end of a perfect weeks holiday.
Own back yard with absolute waterfrontage.

Just about finished mopping up. cant believe the insurance co has been so co-operative,
They have actually suggested i claim a few things that i hadnt thought of ... They are sending a building inspector to check the piers and footings havent been erroded out.
might have been a different story if the NSW premier hadnt directed all insurance companies to honour all claims....In his words " you cant have a flood without first having a storm".........I like the boy
Mightn't know jack smitt about running the state but knows how to win votes with drowned water rats


Matilda has scrubbed up fine. The "Plimsal Line" of grass and weed on the outside was higher than the level inside. Only had about 1" of water inside so didnt make it into the bottom cupbpoard. Annexe, poles and ropes etc where stowed under the front seat. They where wet and covered in silt. all cleaned, dried and repacked... no wuckers.

Just gotta stop the flood through the roof hatch in the TD and i should be finished with water for a while.

Will keep and eye on clutch and brake fluids. Thrust race in Morry is screaming. Hoping it will come good with a bit of warmth and errant oil around it... wishfull thinking i say.

Bottom line.. Its all good brudders. Thanks again for the thoiughts.
Gunna try and get in for a look at the big ship on the beach this sunday. There is a bike run on and we might swing in around that way.
Weatherforecast for saturday 90kph winds and up to 100mm of rain. I can hear the rain on the roof as i am typing.... Better go and start shifting things to higher ground ... gotta run.. Just seen Bill cattledog go past my window on a surf ski . He had a saddle on with the midget from the west - "Ken Kennedy" wearing floatys . ........GULP

Reddoverboard... from the soggy side

[krisbee]

This is a post by Will, originally posted in the middle of a For Sale/Wanted thread. Lots of good advice here, so I have moved it to a more appropriate section.Thanks Will ,it would be a shame if not many people read it, specially as it is a serious post, we don't get many of them from you. ;D ;D


Gidday Reddo

apologies to Classicrodder

this has no caravan content and is long winded but a timely warning to every one who puts faith in insurance policies so to anyone not interested skip this posting
and most certaintly not a lecture to a dear Mate and his family

I feel for you guys over there
please give trish and the boys our best wishes Reddo
and hope all comes back to normal ASAP
Lyn and I are prepared to fly over and give you a week to help cleanup your property ring me Reddo


that certaintly doesnt surprise me about insurance companies
its all about taking and very little giving
ten members of our family set up an insurance fund to self fund our own car and house insurances after all putting in 50 dollars a month over ten tears in 1974
we set a ten year goal to see if we could beat them and that we did the group purchased two properties one commercial unit and a house in Albany W.A.
in that time we had 11 claims and when we split the dividend at the end
total input was $60.000
claims were $26.000
and when we sold up and recieved the dividend
with interest on the fund we came out with $36.000 each
covered all our insurances and and fees
we outlayed around $6000 each in all
I purchased a house in rockingham for fifty seven thousand with the $36.000 which is valued at $450.000 now
these are the ratios for just ten people
Can you imagine what the ratios are for 500.000 people


Any one that place trust in Insurance Companies must be aware there main duty of care is to share holders and you come second if they can wangle a legal loophole they will
It is up to you to check every single aspect of your policy down to the letter

In 1995 a retiree lost his entire lifes savings in a supreme court decision that awarded the insurance company a win
because when a lady who was inspecting his unit to buy it fell through a balcony rail and broke her leg
he claimed from his insurance company
they refused to pay because when his policy was written it had an (S) in brackets at the end of his policy
e.g .Home unit(s)
and he only owned one
even though it was written and reccomended by the insurance company
he signed it

He lost
an absolutely true story I cant put who the company was because of the caravan site rules

Reddo you and most in your area and in your situation are just average Aussies have the nation Riding on your back
work hard pay your taxes do your bit
Reddo you would expect naturally to be covered

however the coffers off the Insurance companies will swell even further in the next ten years as everyone adds flood cover to there policies
and guess what you possibly wont have a major flood again
for twenty years by then with interest and profits they could pay for ten floods
just to make sure it doesnt flood again take out flood cover
I am not deterring any one from taking out insurance
just get out your policies and spend one night reading what is and isnt covered and I bet London to a brick if you check thoroughly in the past five years you have overlooked at least ten claims
for example
the wind blew our tildadoor in and it had a curve in it and a slight twist
we pursued it and it was replaced ($3000.00)
I wouldnt have even thought about it because it still closed and functioned ok
until a mate saw it and pushed me to claim it

Insurance is them betting you
you will have an accident or misfortune
gambling in a casino is 33 to one against you winning

and gambling withan insurance company is 33 to one for them winning
Just look at the massive signs on the thirty to fifty storey buildings in your major cities
guaranteed to be owned by an insurance company
all I am saying is
reddo and any one reading this get that policy out and check every thing ad verbatum from burnt out motors to storm damage add what you think is good for you and claim for every single item you possibly can
its worth three hours pouring over the fine print when the siuation settles

If you wonder why I mention this I was Australias top producer in
1975 for combined American Insurance company
sold on average 50 policies in a 5 day week and broke the pacific rim record with another agent between us we sold 180 policies in a week as a duo in the sth west
If you ask me if insurance is a neccessity the answer is yes
factor it into your annual expenditure and hope your claims are paid
If you are knocked back for any reason on any claim appeal the claim if you feel it is justified to the insurance ombudsman
remember just one letter can cost you everthing check and recheck before you sign


Will

Then we had an answer from fbmad ;D












--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Agree TOTALLY with Will.

I've had a bad experience with an insurance company claim a few yeras ago and I ABSOLUTELY detest all insurance companies as a result.

Even though they show a family friendly face in their media advertising they are the devil in disguise!!
Your best friend when they want a policy from you but god help you if you make a claim.

They can be a necessary evil but I keep my insurance policy numbers down to an absolute bare minumum.
And like everything, I always shop around for the best price on insurance ( and have saved LOTS of $$$ by doing so ) and I now ALWAYS read the fine print.I will terminate a policy if there is something in the fine print that I'm not happy with.

I feel so sorry for Reddo and Trish to go through the flood and the resulting losses and its an extra kick in the guts to find out your insurance company won't pay.

NOT FAIR!!

I learn't this same lesson years ago.

ALWAYS read the fine print on any insurance, contracts , personal/home lending products etc.

Terry.

Ok, everyone back on track?

Cheers Kris.

[Don Ricardo]

Hi Reddo,

Good to hear that things are close to shipshape again (oops! unfortunate comparison...sorry ). I'm incredibly impressed with how much you've achieved in a week. It would take me a month of Sundays to get through what you have. But then you achieved a 20 year project in less than a year, so I guess I should have expected nothing less, eh? Excellent news that there is no lasting damage to Mathilda and that Morry will be OK with a little careful nursing.

I presume you've replaced your back fence with a dyke, or are you thinking of redeveloping it as a marina? Perhaps you should invest in one of those UK caraboats (boatavans?) that were posted on the forum a few months back?

You were the only Novocastrian V V'er that I heard was badly affected by the rain and floods. I presume that all the others survived OK? I've been watching the Newcastle weather forecasts and praying that there will be no repeats.

Regards,

Don Ricardo

[Suzann and Matt (Schultzy)]

Next time you think about building a van think about doing this to it, would have saved lost of problems over the wintersun weekend.





What do you think??? ;D ;D ;D ;D

Suzann

[firefighter]

Hey
If you live in Newcastle with a creek behind you , it would be the way to go ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
F/F ;D

[humpty2]

And you all thought I was mad to buy an "Aquavan" ;D ;D ;D

[Deleted]

Aquavan.. fobbergrass pus
Hmmmmpphhhh. i have pictures of it sunk at the myall lakes last year ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
All because a humpty bog got stuck in the "S' bend.

FACT:
The first REAL watercraft was made of wood and measured 50 cubits by 100 cubits.
Noah had to keep tellin the rabbits " Only 2.. Only 2".

Also would like to mention the canoe TIMBER TREES we seen while cruisin the Murray at Morgan . Gazillions of years old mate. I reckon if we looked hard enough we would have found a aboriginal Bondwood mobile humpy ( not to be confused with humpty)
Even with carefull scanning with binoculars i failed to spot any evidence of canoes being carved from Asbestoglass trees.

Attention Mark Pooperson.....seen your comment earlier about wishing for one millisecond that matilda was made of artyfishoil crap....... i think you used the swearword "Sunliner"
Let it be known.....
I would rather go down with the bondwood ship in a flood than be taken captive by natives on a floating PORTALOO .

reddugoutcanoe