Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Carnarvon Pistol Association

Received this email earlier today:

Hello fellow shooters and shooting supporters!

For those of you that aren't aware, Carnarvon (a small country town ten hours drive north of Perth, the capital of Western Australia) was hit by severe flooding on the 19th of December 2010. Luckily the floods did not affect the majority of the town site but the waters flowed right through some of the outlying areas, including our pistol club.

As you can see by the attached photos, our club is all but ruined. We are a strong local club with 60 active members and we compete (IPSC) every Saturday for eleven months of the year. However it is unlikely we will be able to compete now for some time. We had five ranges, now none are safe to use. We had a great clubhouse with kitchen and seating area for up to 70 people, now this has been covered in water (initially flowing, but later just stagnant) up to mid-thigh.

Not only did the water come through quickly and with force, it also pooled in our ranges like it has never done before and is still there presently. The water as it recedes leaves behind a thick coating of mud and debris. Carnarvon is a horticultural town and some of its main industry is growing fruit and vegetables and also raising livestock on the outlying areas. As the river was so large and unexpected it swept through many homes, sheds and paddocks in outer areas resulting in the flood water becoming contaminated with chemicals, petrol and dead animals.

It is going to take many hands on deck, machinery and funding to move forward with the massive, unpleasant clean-up operation, reconstruction of ranges, stripping of the clubhouse, regrading of the road and reconstruction of shade and safety areas.

The recovery part of this operation must now begin!

Part of this is getting the message out there to all of you, please feel free to distribute this message as you see fit.

If you can provide us any assistance, (and any and all is welcome!) - please contact us [redacted].

Description of attached photos:
IMG_0725 - A range that normally is large enough to run three separate competitions, almost 2m deep in water. We have a train that runs along tracks down an incline to serve as one of our shooting props, you can just make out the top of the green train.


IMG_0694 - The safety area of one range, the dividing range wall and shaded area for spectators


IMG_ 0641 - The road to Carnarvon Pistol Association - the gate is next to the large tree you can see in the middle of the photo


IMG_699 - Drums filled with sand to form the dividing wall of our 100m range


IMG_ 682 - A member wading out to survey the damage, note the sign welcoming you to Carnarvon Pistol Association


IMG_727 - One of our storage containers - it has floated to a new position and targets and range construction materials inside are ruined.


Kind regards,

Jesie [Redacted]
CPA Secretary
[Redacted]


If anyone can help in any way and want contact details, please leave me a note in comments or email me - see profile.

Thanks

3 comments:

DaddyBear said...

Julie, hook me up with some contact data.

Old NFO said...

Same here, I can spare a few bucks for parts replacement.

Julie said...

Thanks guys, will send you contact details.