Stories From The Hunter

[Keith the Beer Guy]

Just a call to the Hunter and Gosford Guys to make sure all have weathered the storm - or the storm so far.

The wind is picking up again and a measly 20-30mm is predicted for the near future.

Goatherder are you anywhere near the river, their predicting a 12+ metre peak later tonight.

Unbelievable weather.

It took me 45 minutes to travel from Marks to my place in Watt St. last night. Couple of scary moments as cars around me were being abandoned by their owners. Downtown Newcastle is packed with sightseers checking out the stranded ship at Nobbies. The carnage around the place is pretty fierce, countless trees and branches scattered around the place. Lots of streets and roads closed. Plenty of emergency services in action.

It reminds me a lot of the earthquake.

Hope you and all your loved one are O.K.

Keith

 

[Gough]

Just a call to the Hunter and Gosford Guys to make sure all have weathered the storm - or the storm so far.

The wind is picking up again and a measly 20-30mm is predicted for the near future.

Goatherder are you anywhere near the river, their predicting a 12+ metre peak later tonight.

Unbelievable weather.

It took me 45 minutes to travel from Marks to my place in Watt St. last night. Couple of scary moments as cars around me were being abandoned by their owners. Downtown Newcastle is packed with sightseers checking out the stranded ship at Nobbies. The carnage around the place is pretty fierce, countless trees and branches scattered around the place. Lots of streets and roads closed. Plenty of emergency services in action.

It reminds me a lot of the earthquake.

Hope you and all your loved one are O.K.

Keith

Glad to hear you are OK Keith. How'd the shop fare? My parents place copped some flooding as did our little place in Wickham. It is pretty hard getting my head around it all from up here - I wanted to head back to help Mum and Dad this arvo but the highway is closed apparently Best of luck to all down there - hope the weather tonight isn't as bad as predicted.

Shawn.

 

[Trent]

Up here in forster we were stranded as a town (or two) for half the day yesterday, all the roads were closed due to flooding! Apparently at Diamond Beach, they copped 270mm in just 4 hours. Luckily the eye of the storm passed over us about lunch on friday, and the wind changed direction, so the waves have been pumping ever since.
Hope everyone else is OK, and that their cars and breweries didnt get washed away.
Today was beautiful and sunny up until about 2pm here, and we are only about 100km north of Newy. Very strange weather. Lets just hope that ship doesnt break up and lose its fuel load into the ocean. That, and the rain heads inland instead of dumping on an already drenched town.
All the best
Trent

 

[Weizguy]

I got released from work yesterday just before my lunch at about 1:15 PM due to power outage (I work in a Call Centre).

Drove home... you Beauty -arvo off!
Some small puddles in the driveway.

Dragon turns up about 20 minutes later, and sez that I have to fetch kids later that arvo.
Went to grab the kids and got home in the rain. Puddles were starting to conglomerate.

Moved the cars to higher ground and went to ensure that our garden equipment was OK. I could see the water coming in and I had to move fast. Secured a few bits and moved some beer gear too. My new box of Kozel dark was moved to a shelf above the previous max flood level.

Well, today the water level is up to my butt, and there are beer bottles and styrofoam boxes floating eveywhere under the house.

Here are some pix, shot from the verandah. First shot, my driveway and car. 2nd shot is the backyard, vegie patch and trampoline.



BTW, the lager fridge has about 2 ft of water in it. Hope it doesn't affect the Kolsch too badly :lol:

Seth

 

[blackbock]

OMG, Medowie really is a swamp!

 

[MVZOOM]

You guys should get some relief - doesn't seem to be much on the horizon - trust everyone's ok!

http://mirror.bom.gov.au/products/IDR033.shtml

If you lose too much, we'll all band together and re-stock ya, bottle by bottle, I'm sure!

Cheers - Mike

 

[pokolbinguy]

260 MM of rain here in Pokolbin in the last 48 hrs.... rather wet around this neck of the woods.

 

[Sammus]

fun fun stuff, I tried to rescue my girlfriends mum from work last night, lingard hospital was rained in pretty bad. I was in a big troopy snorkeling wherever wasnt blocked off. some of the deepest crossings I've done! couldn't get to lingard though, SES don't like it when people drive through flooded roads for fun...

 

[Weizguy]

OMG, Medowie really is a swamp!

Why did U ever doubt me?

Seth

 

[goatherder]

Things are OK up here for the time being. The Hunter is predicted to peak above the levee banks in Singleton so there will be some problems there overnight. I live a little way out of town but I'm still unsure how I'll be affected. My place backs onto a creek which feeds the Hunter. Whilst the Hunter has been rising steadily all day, my creek has been falling since it peaked about yesterday lunchtime. Whilst I'm taking this as a good sign I'm not convinced I'm out of trouble yet - previous floods in my area have resulted from backflow out of the Hunter.

Just for some perspective, compared to the drought of the last 3 years, we got half a year's rainfall in 2 days.

This is the New England Highway bridge at Singleton at 4pm this afternoon:




We are pretty fortunate compared to the Newcastle, Lake Mac and Central Coast people. We didn't cop anywhere near the beating they did last night. We only lost power for about 9 hours - I hear it may be out for days down their way.

Thanks for your concern Keith and everyone else. Good luck for you Newcastle, Lake Mac and Central Coast guys - I hear it's going to be another wild night for you.

I hope guys like Tony, craigm and peve are OK - I heard things are pretty hairy down their way with the flood waters.

Stay safe everyone.

 

[Duff]

Amazing photos, at least the car and hopefully the Kolsch is OK seth

Goatherder, how far does the Hunter have to flow to the ocean from your place? If backflows have occured, hopefully there is not a coinciding high tide.

 

[goatherder]

I'm 100-150 kms from the coast Duff. Hopefully that's far enough for the tides to not bother me...

 

[Duff]

Well hope it goes well for everyone up there tonight.

 

[craig maher]

I hope guys like Tony, craigm and peve are OK - I heard things are pretty hairy down their way with the flood waters.

Stay safe everyone.

OK for the moment - has been a couple of very interesting days.
The forecast for tonight and tomorrow seems pretty grim though.

Maitland [Belmore Bridge]
- exceed moderate flood level [9.1 metres] around
9 pm tonight 9/3/07.
- exceed major flood level [10.7 metres] around
3am to 6am 10/6/07
- rise close to the predicted peak of 11.3 metres by
noon 10/6/07 and peak at this level around 6 pm
with major flooding.

Lets hope they have over estimated!

Cheers

Craig

 

[Kingy]

yea i grew up in newy and have spoken to alot of mates and all my family up there just today and all have no power and some have been told not until tuesday until power is restored :huh:

so be prepared for some future post by the guys that havent been able to get on there computer as of late.

and all the best for them people and hope you get through this rough time

 

[m_peve]

All OK here in Bolwarra. We live on a big hill and now have spectacular water views across to Woodville. We don't seem to have had the trouble other places have had. My brother lives in Lambton and things were pretty hairy there for him last night apparently
The predictions for high water marks on the river may cut us off from town for a while but we have supplies so all should be sweet. Can't say the same for the office. I work in Carrington and I imagine that it may be under water now.
All the best to everyone for tonight. Hopefully things will start to improve tomorrow!!

See Yah
Pete

 

[Keifer]

""yea i grew up in newy and have spoken to alot of mates and all my family up there just today and all have no power and some have been told not until tuesday until power is restored huh.gif ""

I just saw on the news that it may be up to next weekend till some homes have power. That would suck. We were lucky and only had 10min blackout.

 

[T.D.]

My folks live up in the hunter. I was up there over the weekend. I've seen nothing like it.

The wall on our big dam gave way and sent several megalitres through the vineyard into the creek. It all happened within a couple of hours. Took out one of the two roads out of the property with it. Definitely the wettest I've ever seen it up there and we've been there since the early 80s. Here are some pics of the carnage unfolding.

 

[KoNG]

shit.... it really did break through in the end didnt T.D...! crazy stuff.

(might need a bit more than low range to navigate that now..! :lol: )

 

[SJW]

Well boys I am back on-line. What a couple of days we have has down here. I left work at Newcastle City Council at 4pm Friday. After taking 2 hours to get halfway home, on the way my car got flooded and I recued a young girl who's car got washed away. She had to jump in thru my window but we all got out ok. The car is trashed but at least its a Council car.
On to more important things, now that I have cleaned up the house beer production can not be stopped. Tomorrow I am brewing Barry's Choc Porter and (sorry Barry) I am going to call it..........

ANY PORTER IN A STORM!


STEVE