Overwhelmed and gut-wrenching. These are the words of Windsor resident Jodie Saint to describe the pain of finding her home waist deep in floodwater and fact that her family now faces an uncertain future.
Ms Saint, her partner Andrew Ott, and their four children, were given the order to evacuate their Harris Street home at around 11pm on Sunday night.
"When we got the call from the SES we thought we'd wake up and evacuate, we'd just assess how bad it was in the morning," Ms Saint said.
"We went back to get some clothes and photos and it was already ankle deep, so we just had to leave without a lot of photos and things that we could have salvaged."
The couple returned to the home today, to find that the water had risen. They were one of three homes in the street to succumb to the flooding waters from nearby South Creek.
"We are so overwhelmed," Ms Saint said. 'We went back today to assess the damage hoping the water had subsided a little. To get in the front door we were almost waist deep in water. It's gut-wrenching. Everything we've worked for is half gone."
"We haven't been in there long it took us a long time to be able to buy a house."
Ms Saint and her family have been at the property for the past two years.
As it was deemed located within a 1 in 100 year flood prone zone, the couple were unable to get flood insurance.
"And we don't have any savings because it took everything we had to buy a house and we work hard to be able to pay our mortgage ... we just didn't foresee this ever happening," said Ms Saint.
The family have been staying at a hotel since the evacuation and the family pets have been put up with inlaws.
While the second storey of the home is unaffected, the flood ripped through Ms Saint's bedroom, the laundry, the entry way and garage, which housed a full home gym and Mr Ott's tools.
"Our floorboards are literally floating around," Ms Saint said. "It's hard to assess because the water is still there. That's what's kind of killing us at the moment. We can't even see what needs to be replaced because it's still under water. It's going to be a process of waiting for it to dry out and throwing out all the damaged and wet materials and things.
"We lost the most because it was our bedroom on the bottom floor.
"I'm just really worried about the integrity of the house, because I don't know if there is any structural damage. We have to wait until it all dries out and the water subsides."
Prior to moving in to the Harris Street home, Ms Saint had been a resident of the Hawkesbury for more than 20 years.
"We're locals, but we've never seen anything like this before," she said.
Ms Saint said that her children - aged 19, 13 (two) and 8 - were coping well amid the chaos of the situation.
"They're actually quite good considering," she said. "The older one he's been really good, helping out with what ever clean-up we can do.
"But it's been shocking and devastating to everyone."
As for the immediate future, Ms Saint said all was up in the air.
"We're going day by day at the moment," she said. "We're struggling. We're in the hotel tomorrow and we just don't don't know what we're doing after that.
"We're living week to week as it is. We are extremely overwhelmed both financially and emotionally."
Matt Lawrence
My passion is providing news that matters to the community of which I serve. I have been doing so now for more than 25 years and my dedication remains as fresh as it was when starting out in the industry.
My passion is providing news that matters to the community of which I serve. I have been doing so now for more than 25 years and my dedication remains as fresh as it was when starting out in the industry.
