Manilla preschools closed as 'welcome' rain batters community

The town was lashed with rain during yesterday's thunderstorm that forced roads closed around the region. Local SES said it was the fastest and fiercest flash flood in years in the town.

But it's the second flood in weeks to hit the Manilla Community Pre-School.

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They probably will have to replace brand-new furniture and flooring barely a month old, which has now been waterlogged twice.

Director Jenny Bridge said she wasn't complaining too hard about the monsoon levels of rain.

"We've been in drought for so long and I come off a farming history.

"The rain is an absolute answer to our prayers - but a bit slower would have been nicer.

"I don't want to be fussy!"

Local Unit Commander Vicki Blinman said they received 13 callouts on Monday, with homes and businesses threatened by inundation during the storm.

"I've been here 20 years next month, and I've never seen flooding in certain places yesterday that we had in that 20 years," she said.

Flash flooding was lightning fast, she said, with rising water threatening homes and businesses within about half an hour.

Half a dozen volunteers backed by RFS volunteers raced to beat floodwaters to sandbag dwellings around town including the town's doctor's surgery, hairdressers and homes.

Emergency services helped evacuate 20 children from the long day care centre as rising flood water threatened the building.

But they couldn't save a small herd of alpacas from rising flood waters with four of the animals washed away. Three of them were later found alive, but one of them didn't make it.

One home lost its roof to the storm.

Both the community preschool and the long daycare centre are closed today, but will be reopened tomorrow.

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