Aftermath of dampness

So eventually it stopped raining and the blue sky appeared over Carwoola.

This was the signal for our automated sprinkler system to come on.  This was round about the last thing we needed so I went down to reset the cut-off.  Here is the sight that greeted me: obviously the start-up was due to stuff shorting across the water.

Another drain was dug and a plant to prevent a recurrence is in gestation.

On Friday we basically had to head for town to do some shopping, so what follows is a follow up to yesterday's effort.  On the way in we passed The caravan.  It has been a source of some entertainment to the locals that this vehicle has remained where it was put through the various storms etc we have experienced this year.  Note the flotsam piled up under the wheels.

 Apart from the traffic being slow due to the gawp factor (and Morisset St being closed) we got through Queanbeyan with little delay.  While in Canberra I visited Scrivener Dam at the end of Lake Burley Griffin.  I was not alone in looking at the water pouring through 2 of the flood gates: yesterday all 5 were open!

We went  back to Queanbeyan after a little business.  (Before getting to the current situation here are some images of the 74 and 76 floods.  If you know the city layout it is possible to compare several of these snaps with some of of mine.) We went to look at the low level bridge.  Hooley, and also Dooley! This is looking back at the sight shown in the near - final photo from yesterday: I think that was taken from somewhere near the shed in the background of this image..

This is where the water dumped stuff.  The yellow object is a bollard, about 1m high in the middle of the road.  As there is so much junk trapped in the ARMCO on the downstream side of the bridge the water is still going straight over the top of it.  I have no idea how long it will take to clear this up  but the lads are trying!

This is very close to Frances's gym.  My last post showed an image of the car park during the flood and this is the (external) scene this morning.  The waterline was about halfway to the bottom of the windows. Looking inside, all the carpet had been pulled up so obviously the sandbagging hadn't worked completely.

We also went up to the Cemetery to see what was gong on.  The first point was proof that the water was over 8m deep- the sign for that depth is the twisted one below the 10m sign!

 The lowest part of the cemetery had just got dampened by the water.  See the dross caught in the bottom of the fence.  At least no corpses will be joining the other stuff being washed into LBG!

The main excitement was hinted at when a worker suggested we watch out for tiger snakes.  Indeed one had been spotted in the cemetery and was being removed by a number of folk (presumably because it was likely to get trodden on by others if left in its burrow).  Here is a snap of the reptile (probably well over 1.5m in length and also in a very bad humour).

When I had to leave the removal was still in progress (and the humour of the snake was not getting any better). 

On the Sunday (12 December) we went to see what was going on in Captains Flat.  The first thing was to observe that there was very little to observe: the folk had really done an excellent job of cleaning the village up.    Going up to the dam some damage from the water going over the wall was evident.

Before this event the pipes at the bottom of the wall were all buried and there was a nice path leading to the metal walkway.  This is where the guy had to get to open the sluice gate - it took him a bit of time!  Here is a closer shot of the water still being released.

 The next two shots show the damage to the fence around the pumping station that (effectively) provides water to the village and the erosion to the gully below the pumping station.  The power pole also looks to have seen better decades!