NATURAL DISASTERS

"You just had to throw it all out"

Tennant's Newsagent Gavin Carpentre talks to Gemma Buxton

What was your first reaction when you arrived in Katherine?
Probably more shock than anything at the total devastation. But you see, we didn't get up there till Tuesday afternoon. A lot of it was tipped out in the street by then; but just more shock than anything.

Being a newsagent yourself you must have really felt for the businesses who had lost absolutely everything.
That's right, I went up there to give them all a hand. You just don't recover from something like that when you lose everything. You know for someone my age, both the newsagents up there are my age, to just loose everything and to have to start again, that's probably the hardest part. And even if there is insurance it's not going to cover anywhere near what was just pushed out the door and swept up and carted away in the back of a truck.

Was there any stock saved?
No, water went straight in, water was up to 7 foot and all the shelves and everything went. You just had to throw it all out, what do you do with it? Just sodden wet paper bags and a couple of bundles of pencils.
Everything was covered in this thick black gooey mud, that was the biggest hassle, the only way to clean the shelves of it was to soak it again or you'd have to sit there and scrub it off with a scrubbing brush. I spent the Wednesday, Thurday, Friday and Saturday morning on the mop, everytime you turned around the water would run out of the walls and you'd have to mop it again. Half an hour later you'd have to do it again. When they opened the safe about 3 gallons of water ran out all over the floor.
There's two newsagencies in Katherine and I went to both of them. I went to Mike Lamb to lend him a hand because he's in the Coles Complex and they just completely gutted that. They went in with bobcats and just pushed everything straight out the front door and that was it.
Partitions, everything, all the gyprock and that was buggered ... everything just went out the front door. They had loaders out the front and just loaded it straight into the trucks and carted it away. You know it made you cry and the value of the stuff that's got to be replaced in the way of shopfittings, well just everything; anything of timber.
I do think there could have been a lot of stuff saved if you had the time to do it but because of the heat and humidity everthing was going mouldy and stinking to high heaven. The Air Force did most of the clearing up because they were on site. Everybody thought it was the Army but it was the Air Force. They just came in and they moved the bobcat down the back and then they pushed out towards the door. Bang! Everything just went straight in front of the bobcat and got pushed out the door and loaded onto trucks for disposal.
Then they had the firetrucks and they came in with a big 3 inch hose with four blokes swinging on the end of it, and three 2 inch hoses. The two inch hoses went around the walls and the big 4 inch just pushed out everything in front of it and a few blokes on brooms and everything just went straight out the front door. Then they went on to the next place and that was it. You know, Ken... who's a crash repairer with tins of paint and everything just all went, they came in with the fire hose and everything went, tools, anything lying on the floor and you know he had an inch, two inches of the black gooey muck all over the floor.

Did they ask if you wanted that done to the shops?
Well if you called them in, that's the way they did it. It was also a state of emergency as they call it so they had total power anyway, they can come in and do what they like.
One of the problems was apparently that as the water rose up so fast outside, to get it level with the inside before it broke a window or smashed something to get in, it was coming up through the toilets, so you could have had your shop full of sewerage or water that had actually come up through the sewerage, altlthough it would have been pretty thinned by the time the water got in there because it was just pouring in apparently, and it came up that quick.
Daryl Guppie was saying they were sitting on their front verandah watching the river which is just straight across the road, they're right on the river bank near the worker's club, they were watching the river across the road and one of the neighbour sang out, "Hey look over the back fence!" And up against the back fence the water was building up against the fence with leaves and rubbish and stuff and it was starting to come over the top. As the yard was filling they didn't realise where it was coming from because it was still raining.

Was the damage worse than what you thought it would be?
Yeah, alot worse than what I had expected, I mean you see the pictures and you know there's a mess but when you get there and see what a total mess it is and it's not only the actual shops but you drive around and there's holes in the road and fences pushed over and full of garbage bags and junk and rubbish.
It's not just that the water's come up and gone down again, it's the force of the water that is so massive behind some of it; the force of the water alone has pushed over fences and shifted things.
You see all these cars around the place just being carted off one after another and well alot of the older ones, you can just drive them out and get them going, but all the new ones with computer equipment and that in it, they just don't go again. It's heartbreaking to see it, it really is.

So a lot of people wouldn't have had insurance for a flood would they?
Well some did and some didn't, but even so it doesn't matter that you're insured, you never get it all back. You know, you lose your fridge, T.V. and washing machine and anything else and it might only be 2 or 3 or 4 years old so you get the value of what it is and the age of it and you've still got to replace it.

Could people have read the warning better, in order to prepare for it?
Couldn't have read warning signs because the rain fell so fast - in a matter of hours.
They could see the water rising at a very fast rate. People would have literally had to have watched their houses being flooded. Initial major downpour was on Monday night. The second major downpour was on Tuesday night. It was a 'Double whammy'.
A few people whinge about it, but if they left - where would they go? They've got nothing left to take with them anyway.
They just have to get up, have another go, start again.

"You just had to throw it all out" Tennant's Newsagent Gavin Carpentre talks to Gemma Buxton What was your first reaction when you arrived in Katherine? Probably more shock than anything at the total devastation. But you see, we didn't get up there till Tuesday afternoon. A lot of it was tipped out in the street by then; but just more shock than anything. Being a newsagent yourself you must have really felt for the businesses who had lost absolutely everything. That's right, I went up there to give them all a hand. You just don't recover from something like that when you lose everything. You know for someone my age, both the newsagents up there are my age, to just loose everything and to have to start again, that's probably the hardest part. And even if there is insurance it's not going to cover anywhere near what was just pushed out the door and swept up and carted away in the back of a truck. Was there any stock saved? No, water went straight in, water was up to 7 foot and all the shelves and everything went. You just had to throw it all out, what do you do with it? Just sodden wet paper bags and a couple of bundles of pencils. Everything was covered in this thick black gooey mud, that was the biggest hassle, the only way to clean the shelves of it was to soak it again or you'd have to sit there and scrub it off with a scrubbing brush. I spent the Wednesday, Thurday, Friday and Saturday morning on the mop, everytime you turned around the water would run out of the walls and you'd have to mop it again. Half an hour later you'd have to do it again. When they opened the safe about 3 gallons of water ran out all over the floor. There's two newsagencies in Katherine and I went to both of them. I went to Mike Lamb to lend him a hand because he's in the Coles Complex and they just completely gutted that. They went in with bobcats and just pushed everything straight out the front door and that was it. Partitions, everything, all the gyprock and that was buggered ... everything just went out the front door. They had loaders out the front and just loaded it straight into the trucks and carted it away. You know it made you cry and the value of the stuff that's got to be replaced in the way of shopfittings, well just everything; anything of timber. I do think there could have been a lot of stuff saved if you had the time to do it but because of the heat and humidity everthing was going mouldy and stinking to high heaven. The Air Force did most of the clearing up because they were on site. Everybody thought it was the Army but it was the Air Force. They just came in and they moved the bobcat down the back and then they pushed out towards the door. Bang! Everything just went straight in front of the bobcat and got pushed out the door and loaded onto trucks for disposal. Then they had the firetrucks and they came in with a big 3 inch hose with four blokes swinging on the end of it, and three 2 inch hoses. The two inch hoses went around the walls and the big 4 inch just pushed out everything in front of it and a few blokes on brooms and everything just went straight out the front door. Then they went on to the next place and that was it. You know, Ken... who's a crash repairer with tins of paint and everything just all went, they came in with the fire hose and everything went, tools, anything lying on the floor and you know he had an inch, two inches of the black gooey muck all over the floor. Did they ask if you wanted that done to the shops? Well if you called them in, that's the way they did it. It was also a state of emergency as they call it so they had total power anyway, they can come in and do what they like. One of the problems was apparently that as the water rose up so fast outside, to get it level with the inside before it broke a window or smashed something to get in, it was coming up through the toilets, so you could have had your shop full of sewerage or water that had actually come up through the sewerage, altlthough it would have been pretty thinned by the time the water got in there because it was just pouring in apparently, and it came up that quick. Daryl Guppie was saying they were sitting on their front verandah watching the river which is just straight across the road, they're right on the river bank near the worker's club, they were watching the river across the road and one of the neighbour sang out, "Hey look over the back fence!" And up against the back fence the water was building up against the fence with leaves and rubbish and stuff and it was starting to come over the top. As the yard was filling they didn't realise where it was coming from because it was still raining. Was the damage worse than what you thought it would be? Yeah, alot worse than what I had expected, I mean you see the pictures and you know there's a mess but when you get there and see what a total mess it is and it's not only the actual shops but you drive around and there's holes in the road and fences pushed over and full of garbage bags and junk and rubbish. It's not just that the water's come up and gone down again, it's the force of the water that is so massive behind some of it; the force of the water alone has pushed over fences and shifted things. You see all these cars around the place just being carted off one after another and well alot of the older ones, you can just drive them out and get them going, but all the new ones with computer equipment and that in it, they just don't go again. It's heartbreaking to see it, it really is. So a lot of people wouldn't have had insurance for a flood would they? Well some did and some didn't, but even so it doesn't matter that you're insured, you never get it all back. You know, you lose your fridge, T.V. and washing machine and anything else and it might only be 2 or 3 or 4 years old so you get the value of what it is and the age of it and you've still got to replace it. Could people have read the warning better, in order to prepare for it? Couldn't have read warning signs because the rain fell so fast - in a matter of hours. They could see the water rising at a very fast rate. People would have literally had to have watched their houses being flooded. Initial major downpour was on Monday night. The second major downpour was on Tuesday night. It was a 'Double whammy'. A few people whinge about it, but if they left - where would they go? They've got nothing left to take with them anyway. They just have to get up, have another go, start again.