Encircled: Rod Dimsey’s house on Warren St, Echuca, which has been surrounded by floodwaters from the Campaspe River. Photo: Bransen Gibson
Rod Dimsey’s house was built decades ago and he said its floors had never been touched by floodwaters. Until now.
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After the Campaspe River rose and broke its banks early on Sunday morning, Mr Dimsey’s home become one of hundreds of properties across Echuca to be inundated by the flood.
The house on Warren St, near the roundabout by the Dhungala Bridge, is now surrounded by overflow from the Campaspe River, with the level rising high enough for floodwaters to enter the home.
Standing on dry land and looking back at his home now totally encircled by water just 50m away, Mr Dimsey spoke about how the situation unfolded overnight.
He was inside his house early on Sunday morning when the water first started rushing into his property.
“It came up through the back overnight. It came in like a torrent,” Mr Dimsey said.
“There was nothing there one minute, and then next minute it was running down the back of the street. You could hear the water gushing and it just came up and up and up. It was fast.
“There has been water around the house and out the back, but never, never like this. Never.
“I am a floor polisher by trade, so I know floors — the floors inside had never, ever seen water before this.”
Houses on the south side of Warren St bore the full force of the floodwater, with Ogilvie Ave also swamped by the floodwaters.
The torrent spilled out on to the road too, forcing Warren St to be shut to traffic entirely.
Coupled with the closure of Ogilvie Ave on the south side of town, Echuca has now effectively been cut in two, with almost no access from one side of town to the other.
Closed: Floodwaters from the Campaspe River have left Warren St in Echuca totally submerged, with the road shut off to traffic. Photo: Bransen Gibson
Photo by
Bransen Gibson
Mr Dimsey has lived in Echuca for more than a decade and he remembers the 2011 floods.
He said what he saw before him now was even worse.
“By miles. By miles. This is major,” he said.
“We made a decision to leave last night around 12.30am. My son stayed and later said ‘it looks like you’ll be right’, but I got here this morning and no.
“When my wife got here this morning there was part of the verandah still out of the water, and now it is under.
“I am not looking forward to next week. I think it is going to be even worse, but we will see what happens.”
With his home totally cut off, Mr Dimsey has been staying with a friend. He was able to get what he could out of the house and lift other things up off the ground inside.
“I lifted everything off the ground and I got rid of my cars and stuff I had laying around,” he said.
“I live in a flood zone, I would be naïve to think that I was never going to flood, but I just didn’t think that it would be like this.”
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