Help Beck, James, Andrew and TWIGGY

 

 

Hi Friends My name is Leonie Skewis... I am fundraising on behalf of our beautiful friends, the Haining family, Beck, James and Andrew. Please read Beck's story below and help in any way you can. All donations will go toward cleaning and rebuilding their home Twiggy post Qld flood.

 

Six months ago, James and I achieved a dream we’ve been working towards for ten years. We purchased our house! But it wasn’t just a house; it was the home that James was brought home to as a baby. His parents moved into the little worker’s cottage on Twigg Street on June 13th 1979, and James arrived on November 22nd that same year. He was raised there, along with his two little sisters. A long time passed with the kids to-ing and fro-ing, dozens of pets, adopted friends and family coming to stay, until 10 years ago when James and I moved into the cottage together. That was right after the 2011 floods, when the house went completely under; the sequel, as it happened in the ‘74 floods as well. Our beloved “Twiggy” has been in the family for forty-three years and, since we settled on it last year, two generations.

 

Today, “Twiggy” went under water for the third time in that forty-three years. Our hearts are broken that our dream so quickly unravelled with this turn of events.

We had no warning from the government (our house is under water and we still have not been told to evacuate… hold that thought… as I type this, I have just received an evacuation message. A full 18 hours after any road out of our property was passable with any vehicle other than a boat).

At 2:30am we went outside to find five police cars, fire trucks, ambulance & SES, attempting to save a man who tried to drive through the water on our street. He was found, deceased.

At 3am, we started moving everything we could into cars and up as high as possible as the water continued to rise with the tide and the release of water from the damn.

The granny flat downstairs, where James’s Dad lives, started to go under around sunrise.

With still no warning from the government, we continued to wait in the house with all our furniture, with no way to get it out or place to put it, until around midday, when it became apparent that the house was going to go under as well.

A bunch of amazing neighbours helped us get what we could out of the house and into one of their garages on higher ground. Doing this meant moving everything out the front door through at least a metre of water, above our heads, and up the street.

The street is an island, so when the water started lapping the porch, a local with a dingy transported us out to James’s car, which was up on the hill.

Two of our cars (mine and James’s Dad’s) are still on the street, full of our stuff, and we’re hoping they’re high enough to not be damaged.

We haven’t slept.

It’s been a long, long day.

 

Some amazing friends have taken us in and we are so lucky to have them (and all the others who have offered).

 

We don’t have flood insurance. I know this seems like insanity, but…

* These floods are predicated as a 1 in 100 year event… though clearly this is inaccurate

* The government conducted extensive flood mitigation after 2011 which has, until now, worked absolute wonders on zones which used to regularly flood, even with minor rainfall

* James’s Dad was not flood insured when the house went under in 2011. Over the years he had lived there, it would have cost exponentially more to insure it (because of the ‘74 floods) than it cost to rebuild it after the flood

* Because it wasn’t insured, this meant he was the first person in the area to be back in his house, because he was able to immediately re-enter the property and start the clean up without having to wait months for insurance assessments, work with the insurer's builders, find another place to live in the meantime, etc.

 

When the flood waters recede, we want to get straight back into our Twiggy and start hosing her down and cleaning her up, so we can get back in and on with our lives as soon as humanly possible.

 

If anyone could contribute any amount to help us out, however much, we would be eternally grateful. We have each other and that’s our main concern at this moment. But these things take an awful lot of time and money, and, perhaps foolishly, this is not something with anticipated happening so soon after entering into our mortgage. Any little bit will help us get back on our feet.

 

Thank you so much.

Love, from Becky and James Haining.