'Poo-nami' stink: Single mother loses everything after sewage floods home

Without a home, her business in pieces, and with $100,000 worth of content damage (her insurance only covering $38,000), Tara McDonald is asking Albury Council to take responsibility for what she calls "the poo-nami".

On Sunday morning, February 25, Ms McDonald returned from Bunnings to her home on Clarence Street and smelt what can only be described as "s--t".

Her backyard had begun flooding with sewage, and her sink, shower and toilet threatened to overflow.

At 8.55am she rang council. They told her they'll send a plumber immediately, she said.

"About an hour passed and at this point it was flowing out of the bathroom into our laundry," Ms McDonald said.

Frantically, Ms McDonald worked to salvage what she could of her belongings.

"By 10.30, our whole home was underwater, and we had a river of s--t flowing from our house to the backyard," she said.

"I was watching it slowly go into my kids' room as I'm trying to pull out mattresses, and I could see a solid piece of s--t just floating on the top of the water going into my four-year-old's bedroom.

"There was nothing I could do. We'd already tried blocking it and it was overflowing. There was no stopping it."

About 1.30pm, after four and a half hours and four other phone calls to council, the plumbers arrived.

"Apparently council had put through the job as a pipe blockage, not a house flooding," Ms McDonald said.

"So that's why they never attended or did anything urgently."

Ms McDonald said her two neighbours experienced similar problems, albeit not as bad, and plumbers arrived at their houses hours earlier.

Brad Willis, Albury council's service leader of water and wastewater, explained that "staff responded to a water main burst at another location in Albury" on Sunday morning.

"Staff then received a call from a plumber a couple of doors up from Ms McDonald's property and attended to clear a suspected blockage in council's sewer system," he said.

"The blockage was found to be caused by a build-up of rags and wet wipes.

"Staff then attended Ms McDonald's property at around that time and noted that sometime in the past a pergola had been built over the overflow relief gully (ORG), which is designed to protect the interior of homes from events such as this. This prevented it from operating correctly."

Assessing the damage left by the deluge, Ms McDonald broke into tears.

Her recent home renovation was for nothing; "over $100,000" worth of belongings destroyed; at least "$15,000" worth of equipment for her new business, Cheeky Chicken Hobby Farm, lay in ruin.

"I'm going to have to start again - that's what was going through my mind," Ms McDonald said.

"We'd just put close to $100,000 into renovations, and it's all gone."

Ms McDonald said the damage to equipment for her poultry farm has forced her to end the enterprise.

"The destruction of the necessary property for the business in the 'poo-nami' has caused anxiety and stress," she said.

"It's a total loss of the investment I have put into starting up my poultry farm. There is a minimum of $15,000 of loss just in that, and I can not come back from it."

Ms McDonald, who survives off disability support payments for her various chronic illnesses, said the event caused severe emotional damage to her two children.

"My neurodivergent four-year-old saw the poo and wee going into her doorway and collapsed in an overwhelmed amount of sensory and emotional overload," she said.

"She lost everything in her room that we only two weeks prior had redone to cater to her specific needs.

"My (other child) has digestive disorders, cyclic vomiting syndrome and sensory dysfunctions with smell. The hell she will have to go through if all this isn't properly rectified is not fair."

Ms McDonald's property damage is covered by insurance; however, when she recently moved to the Border from Batemans Bay, she forgot to update her contents insurance from $38,000 to $150,000.

NRMA told her the content damage amounts to about $100,000.

"I'm now being left with the clean up as our contents insurance wasn't high enough to cater for someone to come in, remove, itemise and restore what's possible," Ms McDonald said.

"I have to do it all."

After everything is priced and itemised, she said NRMA will ask Albury Council's insurance company to pay out the excess - "this could take 12 months".

If Albury Council refuses, Ms McDonald will have to pay for a lawyer to fight the decision.

"I want council to put their hand up and say, 'yes, this was our fault'," she said.

"I don't want to wait 12 months to get my content compensation.

"But, I also would be happy with a couple of volunteers from council just to come and help us clear stuff out."

Albury Council said it was investigating the incident and has sent Ms McDonald a request for compensation form.

"We will work closely with Ms McDonald and our insurers to determine responsibilities and provide support where possible," Mr Willis said.

Ms McDonald has obtained insurance coverage for temporary accommodation up to six months.

On Thursday, February 29, Albury Council will be flushing one of the major water mains in Thurgoona to combat discoloured water.

It will not impact water supply, but there may be a large amount of water present in the area as it flows into stormwater or the environment.