On Saturday the 20th the pager beeped, for people to attend Moora to help with flooding. We left at 5pm for what we thought would be some sandbagging, and preparing people for evacuations.

The drive up went well until we were about 50kms from Moora and approaching Dandaragan. Water was across the road in different areas and about 4 inch's deep but easy enough to go through. On approach to Moora things began to hit home, the main bridge between Moora and Dandaragan had about 1 meter clearance underneath it.

We arrived at Moora SES unit to see local members, who looked like they had been to hell and back. After a quick bite to eat, we set out in 3 teams (3 members from Wanneroo and 1 local in each team). I was with team 1 whom was dispatched to prepare people for evacuation. Most of the time we told people that there was the possibility of the need to evacuate. Most of the people we told said that they would leave. Others, especially one 90 year old lady said, " I don't know what all the fuss is about? After 90 years in this town the water never came near my house!" We had several people with that attitude. The next task was to assist WAN 4 with sandbagging a house close to the river. Stirling SES arrived and assisted as well. After we left the house we spent about an hour assisting a local, lift chemicals off the ground so that they wouldn't get wet. At the same time the other Wanneroo teams had finished their tasks. We were all dispatched to an elderly residents house to help lift furniture. After half an hour of waiting and no show from the resident, we left for Moora HQ. By this time Bayswater SES had cooked some burgers, so after a quick bite we left for the local motel.

Buy the time Rod, Tracy and myself had a shower and a quick chat it was about 1.45am we went to bed. At 2.20 am we awoke to the yelling of the local SES Manager to "get up we are in serious trouble". Ten minutes later we were in the main street trying to sandbag some shops. But with the water rising at 4 inch's every 10 minutes, it was a battle that we were loosing fast. After about 20 minutes the call came to evacuate about 20 residents from the old age hostel. When we arrived the water wasn't very close to the units, by the time that we left it was half way up the Landcruisers wheels. It had risen 10 - 12 inches in 20 minutes. Once the Hostel was evacuated we had to evacuate the hospital with 10 - 15 patients. This again was a dry car park when we arrived and when we left was 1 course of bricks high. In the chaos of evacuating the hospital our Landcruiser arrived after leaving only 5 minutes earlier. Someone yelled out "get the doctor, one of the passengers is having a heart attack". We lifted her out of the vehicle and transferred her to the hospital emergency room. We had to leave, leaving 2 nurses and the doctor behind. Upon arrival at the local high school (the evacuation point) we unloaded the people. One lady was put into her wheelchair, and as I pushed it along the lady began to shake uncontrollably so I yelled for a nurse. She was having a TIA (mini stroke) I left her with the nurse and began to transfer others to the room.

It was about 4 am and I stayed at the High School helping the nurses and the Operation Controllers with the radio's. At about 7 am the car park at the school looked like a lake and it only had 5 courses of bricks to go up before the School was flooded.

I was asked by the Local Manager to get the team together to check on an elderly resident who had a broken arm and hadn't been seen for quite a while. Graham, Tracy, John and myself with 2 local Police Officers headed out of town to check his house. After travelling for about 30 minutes through water and on muddy roads we arrived outside his house. The house was surrounded by water but not underwater. We tried to drive up the driveway that was lined by trees. The only problem was we went the wrong way around a tree and got hooked up on a rock after rocking backwards and forwards for a while we finally went over it. Whilst the man was loaded into the cruiser Tracy and I walked the driveway to find exactly which way it went. With the man safely loaded and the 2 Police standing on the back of the cruiser we drove along the road for about 200m when a combination of water force, crumbling roadway and a large drain beside the road all came together. We ended up in it front end first and going over quickly. The Police opened the rear door as I held myself in my seat by putting both feet on the seat that Tracy was sitting on. Tracy left the vehicle followed by John. Tracy helped the guy we rescued out as John and the Police climbed onto the side of the cruiser to stop it completely tipping over. I got out through the back door and tried to attach the winch to a tree. Unfortunately we couldn’t find the winch control. The radio came to life to inform us a tractor was on its way to pull us out. The vehicle was leaning that much that the water level was the height of the drivers side window. While I was standing in the water at the winch it was chest deep. The tractor arrived and pulled us out with ease. The cruiser started after a while and we made it back to the high school, we were glad to be there. We sat for a few minutes and than started the hard task of loading the people from the hostel and hospital on to a truck to be taken to the school oval and loaded into helicopters for transporting to Perth hospitals. After 2 loads of people, one of which was the lady whom had the heart attack we had a 30 minute break back at the high school. We spent some time talking to the locals about the town and situation. It was about 11.30 am when Ken and myself with Ronice from Moora SES went for a drive around town. We drove through the area where Tracy and I had told people to evacuate during the night. The area where the elderly people said they wouldn’t leave was 1- 1.5 meters deep. As we were driving through the water it was coming over the bonnet of the Landcruiser. At one point we had the Bassendean SES jet boat following us along the road.

Water coming over the bonnet of our Toyota Landcruiser in a Moora Street

By now it was about 1 p.m. and we were all very tired. The decision was made to leave by the only road out of town not flooded. I travelled back to Perth with Ken, as he was alone in the waterlogged and damaged cruiser. Just north of Bindoon I had my final fright. Ken only for a second drifted off the road and into the gravel but suddenly back onto the road. He either fell asleep or lost concentration for a moment, either way it put the wind up both of us.

During the whole event from the time we left Wanneroo to the time we arrived back home we had all been awake for 23 hours straight.

In review of the whole operation I don’t think I have ever been so scared in my life. Even all the trips to hospital for my asthma. I think the biggest thing was the sheer terror of being so isolated in a small town that was going under with the only way out being by helicopter.

A question was asked on the way up if I was scared or excited? The answer was "I am not scared or excited but have a feeling of apprehension of the unexpected.

At the end of the day I feel that my training and being able to rely on my fellow team members was enough to keep me going. With a few close friends I feel that we supported each other through what can only be called one hell of a mess.

This Moora home had water up to the window level during the night.

All Photo's taken by Dave Van Heek