Despite moving into a new home well out of water’s reach, she is still haunted by the events on Tuesday, April 21 this year.

More than four months later, Colleen, her husband Steve and mother Heather Muddle, still relieve the events of that horrific morning.

She credits her survival to her son’s barking dog and two neighbours who helped her through the rising, swirling water at their Dowling Street home.

“I rang my daughter Carolyn [Andrews] to come and get mum at 5.30am as water was coming up the back and we thought we would have to pack up and get out,” Colleen said.

“But the time Carolyn took mum to her home in Chapman Street, she couldn’t get back down the street because of the rising water in Abelard Street.

“I went outside to help Steve hook the boat onto the car and the water was already waist high then.

“It came up so quickly and quietly . . . it was unbelievable.

“Steve got the boat out and I went and got one of the dogs and put him in the car.

“I went back and got two more and gave them to Steve and went back for the fourth one.

“I eventually got her and by the time I got out the front door and out the gate near the side of the house, the water was already up to my chest and flowing very quickly.

“I knew I couldn’t get through the fast flowing current, so I screamed out and my son Keegan and John Edwards from across the road came and got me.

“I still had the dog in my arms and if it wasn’t for them, I would have been washed away, the current was that strong.

“They risked their lives to save me as we all could have been washed away.”

Everyone from the bottom end of town gathered on the footpath near the Bank Hotel and watched as the water kept rising and rising over the roofs of their homes.

It wasn’t long afterwards that Colleen, who has been in the house for 36 years, and Steve, watched their weatherboard house split in two and wash away.

They also watched in disbelief as three more houses were taken away by the torrent of water on that fateful morning.

“No words can describe what it was like,” Colleen said.

“We just all shook in disbelief.

“The house is about 115 to 120 years old and the only other time water has been in there was the Pasha Bulker storm eight years ago and then it was only mid-calf level.”

The couple and their dogs moved into the Bank Hotel with Heather staying with Carolyn and Rick Andrews.

The couple had the house on the market with potential buyers but pulled it off the market until the Jones’s worked out their insurance money.

They ended up buying the house with Carolyn and Rick moving to Vacy.

“The house suited us and it was nowhere near any water,” Steve said.

“Heather has her own room and is very happy here now.

“When Carolyn took her down to see the devastation, she just balled and balled.

“People found a few photos, bits of memorabilia and Heather’s Australia Day award from 2001, but money can’t buy back everything we have lost.

“It’s all those little things you accumulate over the years that is the story of your life.”

The family is very grateful to the community for all they have done for them.

“Bruce and Eileen took us in and we lived at the Bank Hotel for over the three months,” Colleen said.

“Other people came and took all our wet, dirty clothes home and washed and dried them.

“There are so many people who we don’t know that helped out but they know who they are.

“We will be forever grateful and we thank them from the bottom of our hearts.”