Household Flood Plan Tips

This is modified from our own home flood plan
 our house is further down Katherine River in Florina Rd region
& we get another 6 hrs warning from Katherine

At first reports of possible Flooding

Priority at this stage is outside of house (and our Tropical outdoor style of living) (Stage 1)

1.  Move vehicles & Lawnmower up to main road (which in our situation goes uphill)
2.  Raise fridge on Bessa blocks or move it to shed & place on plastic on blocks. (Tape up plastic to seal fridge) (Duck tape as when the fridge is turned off it will have condensation on outside and tape has issues sticking)
3.  Remove washing machine to shed or raise to higher elevation. Place on plastic sheeting and tape up.
4. Prepare the flood proofing of doorways (below) (we have a brick home so we have a few more options than a prefab place)
5. Disconnect power to Bore at mains switch.

Assumption that water is visible around house and rising, flooding imminent (Stage 2)

6.  Whole family to utilise toilet (we are on septic system and the more that stays in the tank the better, )
7.  Fill up containers for easy drinking water
8.  Disconnect spa & house water pumps and place up high (no town water out here)
9.  Fill plastic bags with some sand (3-4 cricket ball sizes) and place in another bag (double bag) and drop into drains in Bathroom/shower until there is a decent seal. Do same for toilet (but bigger bags) as outside water pressure will force water up into house (septic in our case).
Use Duct tape & cover floor drains for a waterproof seal (this will expand as water rises & burst air out, so expect to reseal)
10. Insert pipe in outside overflow drain and seal to raise several feet (or block off outside overflow drain with sand bags/tape up). You will need to purchase appropriate connections in advance probably 100mm+ fitting.
11. Bessa blocks inside & furniture up.
12. Hook up curtains / roll up mats
13. Take internal doors off hinges (it took ages to get internal doors last time in 1998 & less than 1 inch of water can wreck them)
Use the doors as benches to store gear on.
14. Outside table placed near window to be utilised as an entry/exit point into house.
15. Set up submersible pump (with a shallow entry point at base) I have modified one with duct tape (good stuff) so it will not suck air in shallow water.
16. Turn off power when it gets 1 brick below waterline inside.

If water comes up above a foot & house is leaking like a sieve, at least you tried.
Remember to reverse some points when the water level has dropped & you still have water in house (9 & 10)

Flood Preparation in previous years.

The Kitchen cupboards (laminated) kickboards have been siliconed at floor level/joins/wall and up to cupboard floor.(2 bricks high inside house)
(Next time consider the alloy legs/supports instead of kickboard)

Door Frames should be proper wood/timber this time, not MDF (which expands)

Doorway flood preparation
Lay out frames and plastic (pre marked years ago with texta as to what goes where), silicon and duct tape
Doorways/sliding door frames have previously been waterproofed with varnish/silicon gel in years gone past/
(Also consider sealing slab and several bricks high all the way around the house) (Every house will be different)

Water lower on inside without proper preparation	Frames & plastic on a bed of silicon and taped door
My crude attempt at waterproofing the house.

There is no reason why you cannot have preinstalled alloy frames to slot the wood into (and use at least 12mm marine ply?)

Does it work?? I do not know (yet), these things only get thought of "after the fact", but for a minor flood (if there is such a thing) or a short peak, I'd rather try something than just watch it happen.

What I have been searching for is "Flood skirts" that go around your furniture. (They have them for houses) What happens is you roll the fridge onto it (a big plastic bag), blow up the life ring and as the water rises so does the skirt. Same for furniture. Best option might be to get onto Johnnies or John at Whitehouse and get the odd spare fridge bag for "next" time.
I have asked around for "old" fridge bags, but unfortunately they are thinly built nowadays and basically used once only and are easily holed. (But think laterally and you will come up with another way)

I have been looking at various plastic bags and have come up with a few suggestions in Australia on the Flood Bags protection page....here.

Wet Season Food Kit
Pasta + sauces
Rice
Flour
Sugar
Weetbix
Powdered milk
Start defrosting your freezer contents for dinner in case of extended power outages.
Throw on some bread in the bread maker while there is still power. (In 98 the bread beeped ready a few minutes before the power went out for several days, now that was timing)