By KATH GANNAWAY
THE owners of Bud Parfums and Billy May’s in Warburton were mopping up Thursday morning after a broken water pipe sent a deluge of water flooding through the shop.
It was the second time this week that Howard Jarvis, Kerrie Kioulafas and Susan Cliff had had to pull on the gumboots and call on the Upper Yarra SES to help clear the shop of stock and vacuum, mop and sweep water four or five inches deep from the shop.
Ms Kioulafas was alone in the shop on Sunday morning, 16 February, when the first flood happened with water pouring into the back of the shop after the pipe burst.
A fountain of water spurted metres into the air on Highfield Road, creating a waterfall gushing down the steep embankment, across the car park at the back of the WaterWheel and through the back of the street-level shop.
As the SES volunteers worked to divert the water and save furniture and other stock from damage, Yarra Valley Water searched for the valve to turn of the waterworks.
On Thursday Mr Jarvis arrived to find the shop inundated and the pipe again spurting water and fuelling another river through the shop.
The SES sent a team up again, sandbagging and diverting the water and helping with the clean-up.
“On Sunday, I was ankle deep in water and tried to sandbag the back door but the water was coming in too fast,” Ms Kioulafas said. “The SES were our saviours – they responded so quickly and were just fantastic.”
Ms Kioulafas said Yarra Valley Water had spent two or three hours searching for the turn-off valve on Sunday but were able to cut the water off more quickly on Thursday.
Yarra Valley Water is looking into the circumstances around the pipe burst.
See next week’s Upper Yarra Mail for the full story and photos.
