Grantham Bridge, January 10 and 11th, 2011




GRANTHAM BRIDGE

Grantham Bridge was the saving grace of many of the inhabitants of Grantham that January. One farmer had seen the approach of the giant wave coming across the sodden paddocks from the direction of Murphy's Creek. He ran to Grantham village to alert as many of the inhabitants as possible to run to safety and then made ready his boat. He knew a flash flood was approaching.

Inhabitants who could, ran towards the railway line and the accompanying railway bridge being the most elevated parts of Grantham. The railway bridge led to the highest part of town where the school and several other houses were situated.

In one case, a woman was pulled on to the bridge as she tried to escape the deluge. Cars, and the flotsam from homes, farms, cars, livestock was either washed through the erstwhile roadway or piled up under the bridge.

By the next day, news helicopters filmed many aspects of the bridge...a dead black bull wedged amongst the myriad items and bric-a-brac stuck on top of the bridge. The red water still remained.

The rest of Australia watched on with horror hearing of the death toll as well as the tales of courage, bravery and survival, the destruction of buildings, livelhoods and people.

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