I am one of the Sly employees who lost their house in the February/March 2022 floods in Woodburn. Below are some pictures of my house to give you an idea of the magnitude of the impact of the floods. Like most people we were uninsured due to the exurbanite cost ($18,000 per year).
To put it in perspective, our top floor height was 1.9m above the 1 in 100 year flood and water was still 1m above that floor level. During the night of the flood the water was rising at a rate of 1 step every 20 minutes and my family (wife 2 kids and a dog) were evacuated by boat from our front landing at this time.
The first picture of the house (bottom left) is 3 days after we were evacuated, and the water had started to recede.
The picture of the back of the house (top right) was taken by a boat when we were move from high ground at Woodburn to Evans Head. It is taken from a cane paddock behind us.
The reason for this post is to thank the FTMA and its members for their kind generosity of the go fund me page that was set up for all our effected employees. My wife and I are sincerely grateful for the donation and will use it to get back into our house. We are one of the lucky ones and are only about 6 weeks away from returning.
To all the FTMA members and staff who donated, we are grateful and thank you very much.
Ralph Lohse
Sly Bros Employee
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