We had some pretty heavy rain here on Monday, and many parts of the southern Illawarra suffered severe flooding.
Jamberoo was cut off from every direction – Jamberoo Road, on both the Kiama side and the Albion Park side of the town, Swamp Road, and Jamberoo Pass as well. The preschool had to be evacuated, with the kids taken next-door to the (higher) fire station. The primary school was cut off as well, and we thought our kids might end up spending the night there!
This photo by Linda Faiers from the Illawarra Mercury website shows the flooding in the main street of Jamberoo:
In the end, our kids went home with a friend’s mum and we were able to get through and pick them up around 7pm. It was eery driving around and seeing all the damage – trees and fences down, cars in paddocks, and grass and branches wrapped high up in trees and draped over fence wires, marking how high the water got.
Alan Baxter has also posted a great series of before and after shots on Flickr, showing the flooding around his property: first, second, third, fourth and fifth image. Some great shots there, that show just how quickly the water rose.
My neighbour Geoff posted some videos on YouTube of the flooding along our street, and our little bridge in the aftermath the next day. This first one shows the tiny creek that runs behind Geoff’s property:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYF8x7c3O3w
Here’s the road. There’s a bridge under there somewhere:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiVHEJvW-Pw
And finally here’s the bridge the next day:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0QnR-9ieyw
Our property is fine – no damage, other than a wet floor in the garage where the water flowed through briefly. Fortunately there wasn’t anything sitting on the floor that could get affected, so no real problems. The swale and the dams are full to the brim now, as are all the water tanks.
Not something I’d like to see again for a long time!
Comments
4 responses to “Videos of Jamberoo Floods”
Welcome to Queensland weather. 😉
Wet weather like that is a great time to see how your property fairs and what kind of water management adjustments need to be made.
@Jason: Absolutely! Once I was able to get home (shortly before dark!), I put on the gumboots and had a good walk around to see where the water had been, how it flowed, where it ended up, etc. It was pretty much in line with what I already knew, but we obviously got more water through in a shorter time than I’ve seen here before. My existing plans for swales, gardens, diversions, etc still look like the right way to go, although there are a few areas I’m going to beef up to make sure they can take a higher volume of water without eroding.
Glad to hear you didn’t suffer any major damage. I was at the auction in Berry on Sunday and the weather was pretty horrendous then, seems it got alot worse and I was glad I hadn’t chosen to stay down on Sunday night. Was grateful for my brand new tyres I must say.
@Greenfumb: I’ve been wanting to get to one of those poultry auctions, but I always seem to have something on the same weekend. Lucky you got out when you did!