Dream home turns to flooded nightmare

‘WE ARE DEVASTATED’: Sam Cathcart and his family were meant to be moving into their new home in Branston Road. They are instead cleaning up the mess left behind by Cyclone Gabrielle. Picture by Paul Rickard

“IT’S just sinking in — the reality. Before it was surreal.”

That is the subdued reaction as Sam Carthcart looks at his devastated home-to-be in Branson Road near the State Highway 2 end of Lavenham Road.

Sam and wife Emily were told on Tuesday — the morning Cyclone Garbrielle wreaked havoc on the district — that they could move into their brand new house within seven days.

Instead, they met later on Tuesday at the four-bedroom, 174 square-metre home to remove as much water as possible.

That was after receiving the bad news from their concerned builder Tim Scrimshaw of Coast Build.

“We are devastated. It’s super-upsetting,” Sam said.

“We can’t talk about it without Emily welling up.”

Brand new carpet and flooring were installed only last week.

Their front yard, like most of Branson Road, leaves people struggling to lift their gumboot-clad feet.

Water, silt and mud has entered the home to a depth of 300 millimetres.

“Everything (in the house) touching the ground is stuffed,” Sam said.

The couple, their three children and two dogs have been living with Sam’s parents for the last three years.

He estimates they have been set back three months in terms of living their dream of home ownership.

“We are at the mercy of the insurance company.”

Sam says there is work on the house that “we cannot not do . . . We have to do it”.

The insurance company “might kick up a stink about it — we don’t know”.

The couple planned to dry out the house over the weekend with the help of Daniel Neilson of Jae Carpet Cleaning.

He’s awesome, he said. “We’re going to give it everything.”