Town servo becomes flood refuge
Our reporter James Carmody has this report from the Mid-North Coast:
Yesterday dozens of people spent their second night in a row sleeping in the car park of a petrol station just outside Taree on the Mid-North Coast.
Flood waters running across roads have divided much of the the region into a patchwork of inaccessible areas.
Beatrix Wadely and her husband pulled into the Taree south service station on Saturday morning not knowing they would still be there two days later.
As the weather intensified they found they could not reach their home in Coffs Harbour, nor nearby Taree.
This left just a few small towns in the area that had limited accommodation.
“And all the accommodation was taken, the caravan parks and everything,” she said
Ms Wadley said it was "a bit hard" sleeping in her car but she was grateful the Caltex and the KFC had stayed open.
Heather Miller, 74, said the flooding and intense rain had simply made it too difficult to reach anywhere else.
She had been en route home to Wauchope when she became stranded at the petrol station.
“We know now what it’s like to sleep in cars,” she said
“A friend had offered to put me up in Newcastle but it was too dangerous to drive.
Jo Saldeng lives just five minutes from the service station but she too became trapped.
“I live just down the road and I just popped out to get milk, which was probably a silly move in hindsight.”
“And they had ran out of milk here anyway!”
By the time Ms Spaling tried to return home empty handed Old Bar Road had been closed with water running across it in three places.
Natalya Docherty said after two days she had taken to doing laps of the inside of the service station to keep herself entertained.
“I’ve been doing laps of the inside of the servo, chatting to everyone, making friends, there’s lots of nice people,” she said.
“And lots of stray animals seem to have come here because of the floods, so people have been taking care of them.”
Ms Docherty who had been homeward bound for Mermaid Beach on the Gold Coast said Sikh volunteers had driven up from Sydney on Sunday morning to hand out hot food to people at the service station.
“I’m vegan so servo food is a bit more of a challenge,” she said.
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiYWh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmFiYy5uZXQuYXUvbmV3cy8yMDIxLTAzLTIyL2xpdmUtd2VhdGhlci11cGRhdGVzLWZsb29kaW5nLW5zdy1zY2hvb2xzLWNsb3NlZC8xMDAwMjAxMjbSAShodHRwczovL2FtcC5hYmMubmV0LmF1L2FydGljbGUvMTAwMDIwMTI2?oc=5
2021-03-22 00:32:46Z
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