Swan Hill: The Flood Clean-up Continues

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The Flood Clean-up Continues

On Saturday 4th June, 30 members of Swan Hill Church of Christ set out to assist with the flood clean-up of a family home located in Beneroop, just north of Kerang. After doing some research the church decided to place their efforts with this family of 10 children, who were flooded while their husband and father was away, assisting others in restraining flood waters.

At the height of the flood, the only access to the home was by tinnies, floating over the fence line and through surrounding paddocks. As seen in the pictures, the ground remains very wet under foot. Volunteers were ferried by 4WD along the 1km slippery driveway to help having left their cars at the front gate. Masks and protective gear was donned as the clean-up commenced.

Church members spent the day from 8.30am until 5pm clearing out the flood affected home. Some items were placed in a container for storage while other items were burnt. The ministers Mal and Heather Collins prepared a BBQ lunch for the hungry workers, and urns run by portable generators were also brought in to keep the coffee and tea supply up to the volunteers throughout the day.

The concept of this project is to clear out the house belongings so volunteer builders can come in and strip the walls, replace damaged timber, rewire as necessary and eventually reline the walls, replace flooring and bearers as necessary and repaint the house.  The project has just begun.

The church sees the necessity to continue giving assistance into this community to provide for building materials, etc. As they continue to raise funds themselves they will also receive further assistance from the Emergency Relief Fund.

Monique ten Hoopen
Coordinator of the Emergency Response Group
Interim Executive Director–Community Care