Crazy weather (and floods)
Well, it's been an interesting couple of days.
It was a damp start to summer. We recorded 72.85mm of rain through December, although most of that was on Christmas Eve (17.30mm), Christmas Day (40.21mm) and Boxing Day (4.80mm). Even with that amount, it wasn't really much of a big deal, and the water ran off and soaked away quite quickly really.
A couple of weeks later, and the storms were back with a vengance. January 7 gifted us with 60.50mm. As I write this, mid afternoon on January 8, we're at 56.31mm since midnight - but fingers crossed it appears to be slowly clearing up.
This time, however, things were a little different. The ground was already soaked from the previous downpours. Dams and tanks were already full. Waterways were already flowing. There wasn't anywhere for the water to go.
The dam on the property behind us overflowed, and due to a serious oversight on their part the excess water didn't go into the creek, but instead flowed down behind our water tanks. We'll need to assess any issues there, potentially the crusher dust supporting the tanks may have been partially washed away.
Our two creek crossings were both under water, with considerable erosion on both. One is drivable if you're careful, the other really not. We managed to get one car across by recovering a stack of rocks from the creek bed and shoring up the sides long enough to sneak over.
The one good thing is when we get an event like this, the water usually recedes fairly quickly once the rain stops. By early afternoon on Monday, the water was low enough that we could assess the damage.
One crossing, nearest the house, was just drivable, if you were careful. The other one, not a chance. Just too much of the road had been washed away.
At this point we were literally trapped on the property. Okay, yes, it was possible to walk to the front gate, but from there it's a pretty long trek to civilization!
Thankfully, we were able to enlist the help of our local earth-moving folks, who came in today and restored access!
