WHEN Julie Shields hears heavy rain on her roof, a flood of anxiety washes over her.
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The long-time Gunnedah resident has been living through flooding disasters since she was little, and as soon as the rain starts falling her mind goes to the worst case scenario.
She's had to spend weeks living out of her house, she's seen water up to her armpits inside her home.
"It's not really something you can mentally prepare yourself for," she said.
"It upsets me every time it happens, but there's nothing you can do about it.
"You have a bit of a cry and then you just get on with it."
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The Shields family purchased their 101-year-old home on Bloomfield Street in 1983 and since then renovations have had to be made to adapt to flood waters sweeping in.
The house now sits on stilts after it was raised in 2007.
"When it comes to water, a centimetre can be the difference between losing your house or not," Ms Shields said.
During flooding in November last year Ms Shields was forced out of the Bloomfield Street home for two weeks, due to the sewerage being cut off.
The water surrounding her house was up to her armpits.
When the river started to rise after rain in the past couple of weeks and back-to-back major flood warnings were issued for Gunnedah across two weekends, Ms Shields moved her chooks out of their pens and her dogs to the front garden.
"It's not a written plan, we've just always done it for so long," she said.
Learning to live through floods has become second nature for Ms Shields.
She always estimates between 20 to 30cm over any predictions, and is often "pretty smack bang on", she said.
But it's an experience she wishes there was more support for.
"I've been through floods ever since I was little and we've never been offered any counselling," she said. "I get anxiety, mum gets anxiety."
A major flood swept through Gunnedah in November last year, damaging roads, cutting off properties and indundating homes.
Ms Shields said it "rocked" her so much that she decided to do something about it, launching an online flood information and support group for locals.
The Gunnedah Flood Information and Support group has close to 2000 members.
"I think talking about it is good," she said.
"It feels better when people know our stories and I've tried to encourage that in the group."
Ms Shields said she hoped the recent flooding events would spark conversations about building a levee, as well as structures and procedures that could be put in place to get the "big problem sorted".
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