THE day after her Fitzroy St real estate business was inundated with water, Helen Harm, as well as cleaning her business, sold a house and rented out three others.

Life must go on and that is what the businesses along the Condamine River, whose livelihoods went under, have done.

Mrs Harm has continued her business while cleaning up. As she stands in her office with the walls cut away from chest height down and bare floorboards, she has learnt to prioritise what really matters.

“The water destroyed the gyp- rock walls in the office, so we have cut that away. Everything has been sprayed, twice, to kill the mould and spores” she said.

The office is fully functional, and hessian has been put up to hide the exposed studs. However Mrs Harm won’t be laying any carpet or replacing the walls anytime soon.

“With the same weather system around it’s worrying,” she said.

“I hope I’m wrong, but I think there will be another big one, around mid-March.

“Until then I won’t be replacing anything.” 

Mrs Harm also learned a few tricks between the floods, one being to duct-tape the office data sockets to prevent the muddy brown water from destroying them.

“To date it seems to have worked; we haven’t had any problems,” she said. “I also learnt that floods bring out the worst and best in people. My tenants and landlords, family and friends, and strangers who all came in and helped with the clean-up were just amazing.”

Next door, Gail Steele from Steeles Bakery also has her doors open and it is business as usual, although she has had to slightly cut back trading hours.

The bakery’s main problem is sourcing stock, especially flour. After dealing with the same flour manufacturer for 25 years, she has had to use two other companies since the floods.

“The normal company’s manufacturing plant went under in the Brisbane floods, and I had to switch companies, but thenCyclone Yasi damaged their plants up north,” Mrs Steele said.

With borrowed shopfront counters while new ones are being made, Mrs Steel is still on weather watch.

Down the road at Olsens Home Hardware, owner Alan Olsen admits straight after the floods he was nervous of another big flood, but is now hoping the worst of the weather pattern is behind us.

“I’m pretty confident there won’t be another one,” he said.

“We are slowly getting back to normal, but every day we find something else.

Mr Olsen estimates there was 1000 hours of cleaning to get the hardware shop back in operation and can’t thank enough the family, friends, staff and their family and friends and the strangers who volunteered at the Town Hall for their hard work.

The Salvation Army also fed and provided extra helpers.

Around the corner in Albion St, Linda and Bruce Bunch from Albion Street Auto Centre are “nice and busy”.

“We are pretty much up and running, however, we are still replacing some of our electrical equipment that was originally tested and fine, but are now playing up” Mrs Bunch said.

“We have replaced all the office furniture.”

The Bunches are also grateful to the community for their help.

“It’s too numerous to name the family, friends and strangers who helped or offered to help us out,” Mr Bunch said.

Upstream, Killarney Tucka Shop owner Shirley Cooper “no longer likes the tinkle of rain on the roof”.

With her home situated behind the cafe also flooded, her main concern is the floor covering and floor boards.

“Our home is still unliveable. We are living in the caravan beside the house,” Ms Cooper said.

“We had the cafe’s cooker temporarily fixed but have placed an order for a new one and hope it arrives before the old cooker finally succumbs after its third flood.

“We lost about a week’s trading, but the locals have been amazing. Without their help and support we would not be where we are today.”

Killarney Newsagency managed to stay open despite being flooded.

“Newspapers needed to be delivered, and people were wanting to change up their luck with Golden Casket tickets,” owner Kay Hancock said.

“We have cleaned up as best we can, and are also waiting to hear from the insurance company.

“We will need to replace the floor covering and shop fittings.”

When asked if she was worried about more flooding, Mrs Hancock replied: “We have been in business for 15 years and have only been flooded three times, and that has only been in the past two years” she said.

“If it comes again it comes, there is no point worrying yourself about it”