And then there was flooding.

[reynardo]

I was trying to take da_norvegicus and lokicarbis over to crazyjane13's for a bit of Bah Humbug.

But we never made it, and under here are the reasons why.


We stopped at Coburg Lake to have a look at the falls.

They're normally a little trickle at the end that winds its gentle way through the trees at the bottom...



Then we tried to go along Murray Road to Plenty Road. No dice. Through the torrential rain (I was crawling at 30-40km/h most of the time) we could see that the railway crossing was blocked, and the police were turning people onto St George's road.

So we headed north up St George's, to cut across the line at one of the other crossings. There were lots of places where floodwaters were across the road, luckily not too deeply, but enough that I could feel the car having trouble getting through, and I had no intention of going back that way. We kept trying to get through to the level crossings.

But the next one seemed to be stuck down. As did the next. And finally, at Reservoir Station, we just missed the right hand turn through an open gate, so sat waiting for the lights to change.

... and sat. And sat... Until finally, even the bus across the road waiting for the gate to open gave up and went back onto the main road. A couple of enterprising lads drove up to one of the other gates (it's a complex crossing) and one of them hopped out of the car and lifted the boom up so his friend could drive under. While it seemed that the trains were seriously out, I didn't have the nerve to do the same - and besides, if I did that to get across, how would I get back?

We drove back along Edwardes Street towards the park there. The nice, green park right next to Edgar's Creek (can you see where this one is going?) We had to turn off Edwardes Street because it was obviously deeply flooded further on, so we ended up beside the park on Griffiths Street.



Which was a bit soggy...



fire_wuff suggested getting further north and trying the ringroad, so we headed up Griffiths Street - and almost got flooded at the first intersection. We turned left and went across the bridge Leamington Street - and the water was almost up to the bridge itself. If it was clearing under the bridge, it was by a matter of two or three centimetres. At this point we called it - it was clearly too dangerous to try and work our way through and there was no guarantee I would be able to get back.

So we dropped lokicarbis back at his place, and ducked back to Bell Street to have a look at the water under the bridge there.



That's how dark it was.





That bike track goes down and under the bridge. According to the warning sites, the water is now 3.3m high - just 10cm from a "Moderate" flood warning.

According to da_norvegicus, who headed back for a look later, half the market gardens near Harding Street are under water, and the big suspension bridge with the bike track on it is only a few meters above the creek.


I probably shouldn't have gone through a couple of the puddles on the roads, but I stand by my decision to head home. We're all safe, and the only regret is not making it to crazyjane13's to get Humbug Hugs.

Comments

[reynardo.livejournal.com]

I only went where it was a suburban road and I was following another car that had made it. It was more deep, deep puddles where the rainwater had collected, not actually where a river had risen, and I could always see the gutter and the edge.

No, I would never cross a bridge where a river had come up and over, or where the water was actually flowing.