NSW North Coast floods

Just came back from a drive into town and the river did not get into Belgrave Street, appears to me that the Eden Street levee did not overtop and the only water that was in town was from "Local Flooding". Barnray

Cheers Barnray, thanks for the update. Tried ringing the folks but couldn't get through.

Tony, ABC radio has been broadcasting in 'emergency'mode for the last few days and it's being streamed..try this link



Don't be too concerned about no phone contact because this is common in quite a few areas. Otoh, mobile phones seem to be OK. Electricity has been out in some areas for 3-4 days too.

Barnray, they just said on the radio that if the levels don't rise any further, or there is no more heavy rain, the CBD will reopen tomorrow. Business owners with an SES issued pass are permitted back into the CBD today to assess the damage and move stock back into their premises.

I'm not in Kempsey but a little further south. The Pacific Hway is cut to the north at Clybucca and also further north in several spots and the Oxley Hway is also cut west of Gingers Creek (between Wauchope and Walcha) with several large trees across the road.

Hope this helps? if not give me a yell, it's just a matter of sitting it out for now. High tide tonight is another concern at the moment.

Bronwyn ;-)

Hi Bronwyn, thanks very much for that. Managed to get hold of mum and dad on landline yesterday afternoon and they are actually enjoying the solitude that comes with being surrounded by the invading water. They are cut off at their creek. Dad got home OK and was supposed to be leaving again this morning but he doesn't think thats going to happen.

The mobile phone option is often a good idea, unfortunately, even in the best of times, they have zero mobile coverage on their property, but thats a very long story about Telstra, satellite dishes, and countless new replacement mobiles, none of which have worked.

Thanks again, i can breathe a little easier now.

Tony.

G'day Tony

Pleased you got in touch with your parents. Fully understand the mobile phone predicaments, sometimes there is better coverage in more remote areas!! LOL

Kempsey is open today, although there is still LOTS of water coming from the up-river areas and the Pacific Hwy is not expected to reopen at Clybucca until towards the end of this week, because once the water subsides they then have to clear all the mud and debris before checking for structural damage to the bridges.Ballina to Grafton is the same, but the Oxley Hwy has reopened.

This has been 'the' biggest flood in memory if you consider that all of the northern rivers were in flood at the same time...usually it's more localised. Still no sun today but at least it's not raining although showers are forecast for the remainder of the week with no sun until Wed of next week, as per the BOM.

This morning I heard an interview with a rescue chopper pilot who had to land on the beach in the Byron area (not sure exactly where) but he said the wind was sooo strong the chopper was flying sideways, so he decided to land on the beach and wait for the wind gusts to settle. Twenty minutes before he could resume his rescue mission.

Good to know your parents are OK.
Bronwyn ;-)

Hi Shane.
Try this one:www.waterinfo.nsw.gov.au/drr/indexshtm
This site shows a daily river report for the northern rivers of NSW.
Any problems, please MM me.
Cheers.
Vince

Thanks Vince I see that your addy here is missing a dot, Grahams worked.
I see the bridge over the Clarence at Baryurgil (spelling) was at 12 meters??, thats a lot of friggen water!!!
Shane

Hi Shane.
Its a pity some of this water cannot be transferred over the range into the Murray/Darling system.
Cheers.
Vince

Vince,
Its a tempting idea BUT we don't seem to have learned yet what happens to salinity levels when soils are irrigated. In the present ultra dry state of the Murray Darling catchment I reckon adding water from coastal sources (which would mean there is no real capacity to flush the soils and the waterways) would have at best a very short term benefit and possibly be a long term disaster. Then there is the cost of building dams, pumping water etc - would irrigators really pay for that?

Cheers,

Val

This one works for me, thanks Graham

Hi Hairs& Fysh,
Its Barb here from Gulmarrad we have had quite a few trees down around here luckily none hit any houses we had a neighbours tree come down into our yard. I cant believe the amount of people who drove to Yamba and got caught down there. You would think if you a new to an area you would at least ask someone who has been through a few floods BUT
barb

Hi Jon.
Great photos.I bet the camp area at Cangai has copped a flogging. The Mann river was about 3m higher than the last flood.Hope all is well with the family.
Cheers.
Vince

Hi Barb,
Glad to hear all is well over your way.
I know what you mean by people not asking about things like floods and the like. There is a lot of new people to the Clarence, and 90% of them think they know it all, :). I was speaking to a bloke on Friday arvo, New to town, about how he was going to travel to Grafton from Lawrence to get a few things and come home, I told him everywhere the road would be cut, for starters it would be cut at Greens Lane, then it would be at Boormans crk. and so forth. His answer was that he'd be right cause he had a 200 series and they are a better 4BY than my 80 series. I told him he would not be able to, that's why we came home up the Summerland H/way and along Pringles Way fFriday morning.. 15 minutes later he drove back past the shop and asked people how to get to Grafton down the Summerland H/way. Mind you this was about 4 pm. and water was crossing the road at the Lawrence shop. This is our third big flood, ;)

I reckon you would be right Vince, It'll be a while before it will be ready to camp at again.
There is still a lot of water in them hills to come down yet.

I think people forget how big the catchment area of the Clarence is.
From Stanthorpe in the north to Dorrigo in the south.

That was a great presentation, congratulations.
Hope all goes well. Our feelings go out to the flooded.