I can remember the 1955 floods as I'm a wee bit older than you, Helen!
My parents' house was on a hill. To get to school we walked down the hill - at the bottom was a dip which filled during rain - then a couple more blocks, and we were at school. The dip, of course, flooded, but we didn't get out of school; we had to walk up the hill and go a longer way.
I remember my mother being absolutely mortified when she received a box of clothing from my father's sister and her family, who lived interstate. They had heard about the floods and assumed that we were washed out of house and home, which was not the case at all - we were high and dry.
Except when my brother and I had to walk to school....