“It was just amazing how quickly it all happened. Like 30 minutes, and yeah, the backyard was a lake.”
On Wednesday, a day after another major storm hit the Shepparton region, the wonder Mikaylah Brian experienced during the event was still evident.
Ms Brian and fiancé Tim Canty have only lived in their Waranga Dve home in Kialla Lakes for a couple of months and expect they might not have to water the yard for a couple more after feeling the full force of the thunderstorm that hit the Goulburn Valley region on the afternoon of Tuesday, January 2.
“The driveway was flooded, and yeah, it just happened so quickly, and the lightning... There was a big lightning strike at the back there and our hearts were pretty sore so we thought, ‘Are we having a heart attack or what’s going on?’ It was pretty electric,” Ms Brian said.
The couple were busy landscaping the front yard of their home when the storm struck, the second major event to hit the region after another on Christmas Eve.
“The backyard was a lake... it was the fourth lake of Kialla Lakes, and obviously the front was just flooded, so the street was flooded, the front table drains here were all flooded, and of course, our hard work yesterday was soaked,” Mr Canty said.
“It was pretty amazing, but once the backyard started filling up, water started pouring into the garage, and we probably had a good inch of water in there.
“So it’s drying out today.”
Mr Canty said the street outside quickly turned into a canal as the storm dumped 78.4mm of rain between 4.30pm and 9.30pm, including 24.4 mm in just 20 minutes from 5pm, according to the Bureau of Meteorology’s Shepparton Airport site.
It wasn’t just the rain, but hail too, with Ms Brian managing to get one of the couple’s cars under cover during the storm as water rose towards the house.
By morning, the water had drained away and there were just small amounts of debris on the streets to show for the storm of the afternoon before.