Vickie Burn raised her four children in her Hooke Street home with the youngest only four hours old when he went to live there.
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All those memories came flooding back to the Dungog resident when her house was demolished last week.
Ms Burn’s house was totally inundated with water in the April 21 superstorm.
While she was living with her husband Peter at Hillview Estate, a home they bought for their retirement, the Hooke Street home was still fully furnished.
“My son was living there two weeks prior to the storm hitting,” Ms Burn said.
“I have three young grandchildren and apart from Tyler living there while he attended university, I had all the children’s winter clothes and blankets stored at the house to give us more room at home.
“And of course they are all gone as the water reached to the eves.
“As the water went through the house it was like a whirlpool with stuff being thrown around everywhere.”
Ms Burn had gone around to the house that Tuesday morning and couldn’t believe her eyes as she drove down the street.
Along with a neighbour she also helped rescue the elderly couple next door, getting them to safety.
“We have chosen not to rebuild there so the house has been demolished,” Ms Burn said.
“Who’s to say this can’t happen again?
“Even if I did rebuild there and sold it, I could never sleep at night wondering what is going to happen when we have heavy rain again.
“I initially had issues with the insurance company as they wanted to take 58 per cent off the value of the house if I didn’t rebuild.
“If a house it totalled, does it really matter what you do?
“There are a lot of people in town who are also having problems with insurance companies and others who have been paid out or their house is in the process of being fixed.
“We, like most people in town, have been paying insurance for years and when something happens they don’t want to come to the party.
“The property will just sit vacant . . . it will be cleaned and mowed.”
The family wasn’t entitled to any government assistance as the house was not occupied when the storm hit.
“Because we didn’t fit into the government’s neat little box, we didn’t get anything.
“It didn’t matter than my grandchildren have lost all their winter clothes, blankets and all the furniture which was inside.
“I had just spent two weeks steam cleaning the walls at the house and had the carpet shampooed – then the storm hit two days later.
“But the Dungog Shire Community Centre has been great and the children now have warm clothes and blankets and they also helped with food too.”
