Hi Friends, it’s been quite a ride here. The intentional community that I live on came through very well. Most of our houses are well above the new flood level. The creek that we have to cross to get in and out rose by over two metres for a day. It had risen half that two days before. When the second storm hit, the ground was so saturated that the water just rushed to lower ground and our region saw some devastating flooding and landslides. So far, only two mortalities in Byron Shiire that I have heard about. The community sprang into action to organise check ins and at least one rescue with the help of the SES. The phones and internet were down for several days, so, we had no idea what was happening up the valleys. People had to hike in. Bridges were out and roads torn up. House were under water around the region. In Lismore people were on the roofs of two story houses to wait for rescue. A 1.5 metre flash flood went through Mullumbimby as 4am. Many houses were inundated. Ballina had massive flooding. Murwillumbah had water over two metres high in the downtown. Roads north and south were closed off. No internet meant no eftpos or atms. Shops were cash only for several days. When I was able to get into town, the streets were being lined with furniture, beds, refrigerators, etc that would be going to the tip. The streets were also lined with trucks of people coming to lend a hand. The local Resiliant Byron organisation helped coordinate the many volunteers and people in need. The Mullum civic hall got so many donations that they had to tell people to check the white board out front before donating. A few days ago, an official said that so far 1100 homes in the region had been deemed uninhabitable. Don’t know what the final tally will be. We are living in a region, especially Byron and Tweed Shires that already had a housing crisis with people leaving because they were priced out of the market to buy or rent. What will happen to those families who now have no home to live in? The state and feds say stuff but when and how much they will help is a real question. The government was unprepared for this and slow to act. The local State Emergency Service was out right away but they were overwhelmed. In the first day, there were 6000 calls for help in the region. That did not count the people who couldn’t make a call. Just yesterday, the PM was talking about establishing a submarine base. He’ll spend billions on submarines but for the people…

Back to my situation. My house stayed high and dry. When I moved my tiny house onto my friend Ros’s share, I dug a trench diagonally above my house. I did it’s job as some of the run-off from the mountain at which we are at the base headed for my house. Still, the grass around my house had water sitting on top of it for a week before we had enough dry days for it to dry enough. Another storm was headed just north of us but it looks like we just got a little of the edge.

We did have one secondary dwelling unit get flooded. It is located beside a small branch of the main creek. It’s still standing but will need repairs and it’s contents will have to be replaced. Fortunately, it was just being prepared for new tenants, so, there wasn’t that to deal with.

We get spring water for the community from a spring on the other side of the mountain. The flooding of the creek below the spring and three landslides destroyed large sections of the polypipe that had been in place for almost 40 years. Six of us hike up to the spring and ran new polypipe where the old had been destroyed. We ran it on the slope high above the creek this time. It took us six hours and much of that we were traversing muddy slopes holding onto saplings and resting against tree trunks as we unspooled and connected the poly pipe high above the creek bed. We only had one injury with one member cutting himself. Otherwise, we all made it through unscathed. But SHATTERED. It took my body two days to start to feel somewhat normal. My thighs were aching for three days if I squatted. Still, it was a job well done. The flow is better than before because of the new route we used. And it was great to work together like that.

Wish us luck or whatever. This is an ongoing saga. I’ll update in a while when we see how things pan out. I hope you are all safe and well.

I send my heart out to the Ukranian people.