TRAUMATIC: Two men steer a boat on Leaver Street at the peak of the March floods. Anne and Paul Rogerson (standing) are one of many couples still helping their children through the upheaval of the disaster.
FOR many children in Yenda it will take a long time to recover from the March floods that displaced them from their homes and destroyed so many of their possessions.
The disruption of being evacuated and shock of seeing their damaged homes has become evident in many childrens’ concerns over the past six months.
Parents have faced anxious questions about evacuations during heavy rain as well as requests for bunk beds to keep floods away from sleeping youngsters.
Even the most resilient of children have been struggling with the ordeal.
Yenda mother-of-two Anne Rogerson, whose home at the bottom end of Leaver Street was inundated by thigh-deep water during the floods, said her children had lost some precious items despite moving them before evacuating.
Ten-year-old James lost many of his books, which he had tried to save by stacking them on his bed.
“My kids haven’t had any trouble with anxiety or not sleeping but the situation has been very upsetting for them at times,” Mrs Rogerson said.
“The one thing we’ve had with James was that he asked us to buy him a cabin bed, which sits off the ground.
“The hardest thing for them has been living in a unit in Griffith for the past six months, it’s a bit small when they’re used to having a lot of space and it’s a long way from their friends.”
School has become a sanctuary for some children, with both Yenda Public School and St Therese Primary School offering additional support for their students.
Yenda Public students have been offered access to a counsellor one day a week.
“Initially we had quite a few students being referred to the counsellor to talk about what happened – there’s still a lot of raw emotion about the floods,” principal Derek Noffke said.
St Therese principal Kathy Grant said some children still panicked when it rained.
“Any sort of change affects children’s behaviour – they react differently to things than they would normally,” Mrs Grant said.