Illawarra Flash Flood Event - August 1998
This was serious event were some falls over the 3 days accumulated well over 500 mm ( 20 ins)
7th
& 8th AUGUST - MINOR FLOODS, GALE FORCE WINDS and LARGE SEAS.
A trough that had brought rainfall to inland
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OTHER REPORTS OF THIS
EVENT -
Radar images courtesy of the Bureau of Meteorology
The first image is at approx 6pm on the 17th August 1998. This was about 30 mins before the storm grow to peak intensity. But already it shows areas of up 100mm per hour rainfall.
The second image is 8am the next morning and clearly shows the trough line, now just offshore. I live just below the label WOL and it was overcast with rain. Michael Bath of Australian severe weather who was located on the 16th floor at his work site ( right between the label SFS and BK ) was in sunshine and had a fantastic view of stacked Cumulonimbus cells to the east and south. See link below for Michael's account of the storm.
OTHER ACCOUNTS OF THIS WEATHER EVENT
A PERSONAL ACCOUNT FROM
On Monday evening at about 7.00pm I observed that the
rain was
incredibly intense compared with earlier in the day - the rate of
run
off down my the backsteps behind my home seemed to have trebled
or
quadrupled compared with what I had seen earlier during the
day which I
had thought had already been about the highest flow
rates that I had
ever observed.
I went to move my car from the street to higher ground - I had
been in
bed with the flu and hence not at a Wollongong City Council
meeting -
but it was too late - my neighbours were alerting us of the flood
that
had occurred and that my car was underwater up to its headlights.
I went
out and looked and realised instantly that we had pmf (probable
maximum
flood height level) - I had only recently chaired a public
meeting in
Thirroul on my catchment Hewitts Creek Flood Study and was well
aware of
where 1in 100 year flood levels and the pmf would be - I was also
instantly aware that across the whole of Wollongong that we would
be in
big trouble. I tried to contact relevant senior engineers at
Council on
their mobile phones to seek evacuation assistance for my
neighbours -
none was available - individual communities throughout the city
of
Wollongong were isolated - each would have to help itself and
evacuate
sooner rather than later. Eventually a senior engineer rang back
and
updated me - just as he and others at the SES headquarters had to
be
evacuated themselves - SES volunteers were to find their
cars under
water as well. Remarkably the flood level dropped quickly - thank
goodness - and I was able to move my car to higher ground and
then start
to move furniture upstairs - my husband was trying to get back to
Sydney
- having been stuck on the F6 and no hope of getting down Bulli
Pass. I
began to watch the television reports including the stories of
the kids
escaping from the roof - I made contact with the Lord Mayor - we
were
both very worried.
I had always hoped that I would never see a pmf anywhere in the
City of
Wollongong in my lifetime - let alone in my own neighbourhood.
I sleep badly and get up at 4.00am and 5.00am to check up on the
creek
and sea levels -thank goodness the tide is not too high and the
storm
surge is not too bad. I go home and sleep deeply for another 2
hours -
at 7.00am my daughter wakes me up - I don't want to get up yet -
I know
that it will be a long day.
Next day began the task of the clean up.
So many people helped us the next day - we were without running
water
for 21 hours and buried in a sea of sticky mud - and there would
be no
power in some of the flooded houses for another 24 hours - I
tried to
bail out the water and mud from my car plus deal with engineers
recording flood heights and stressed neighbours worried whether
their
property would be undermined as the creek banks had been eroded
away.
It seems to go on and on - I walked up to Lachlan St Thirroul -
further
up the catchment of my creek - what a disaster area - in my
street there
had been a sea of mud but up here was structural damage and a
fear about
more storms due and creeks full of rock and mud - fortunately we
escaped
any severe aftermath of more storms. My husband
finally makes it back
to Wollongong and finds me on the streets of Thirroul walking
back to
our home as the rain begins to pour down again. At home - I
finally
shower and it's 4.30pm and at last I feel hungry - I had
not eaten or
drunk anything all day.
With each day there was more news of tragedy and heartache.
And in the
early hours each morning I would wake and relive the experiences
- and
think of all the things that I had to do following the flood's
aftermath
- both on a personal basis and also as the local City
Councillor. On
Thursday afternoon at 4.30pm I was still cleaning the kitchen of
a
property I own opposite my home- the mud is so sticky and
requires
scrubbing to remove - my tenants had lost nearly everything in
the flood
from this property. I had to quickly get changed to
attend a special
meeting of Wollongong City Council convened for 5.00pm to report
on the
disaster. I really found it hard to attend - but knew that I had
to go -
I listened to the reports and gave an emotional thankyou to all
those
who had helped my neighbours and myself. I finally returned to
work on
Friday - which was good to get away from the flood - but it was
never
far away in my thoughts - I was agitated when it began to rain on
the
way home.
On Saturday I got ready to listen to the 7.00am news - fearing
what more
tragic news might emerge and predictably it did - my fellow Ward
Councillor Dave Martin had to evacuate his home for fear of
landslides -
and then came the warnings of more bad weather and floods over
the radio
- I was frantic - raising the few remaining belongings of my
tenants
above a flood height and alerting neighbours to be careful - a
Council
engineer and SES officer came and said that everything was
looking more
optimistic - thank goodness - the thunderstorms broke up
and moved away
- and the sun came out and everything became a little drier. And
Dave
Martin had the "OK" to re-occupy his house.
But the tragedy endures - and our own flood problems (minor
compared to
many) require obtaining quotes and organising repair work
-plus more
cleaning of curtains and repainting - and the mud and the water
linger -
unable to get away because it starts to rain again - maybe
tomorrow it
will dry out - but then there are more storm warnings - for the
early
hours of Sunday morning - it will take a long time to recover for
many
residents - and the engineers continue to collect and analyse the
data
to try to explain what's happened....
Two photos taken the day after
the floods. The first is where Fairy Creek enters the ocean at
North Wollongong, the day before from where the photo was taken
right across to the far side of the rocks was a sandy beach. The
flash flood from fairy Creek has scoured the beach down to
bedrock. This is a creek whose farest flung headwater is less
than 5 miles away. The second is traffic chaos at Springhill
Road, Port Kembla, although just outside the main flood area this
stretch of road as far as you can see in this photo was flooded
to at least 1m ( 3ft ) deep, left behind was a slimy mud that
caused traffic accidents.
20TH August - LANDSLIDE FEARS - A resident of the village of Mt Kembla was woken early in the morning by his barking dog. When he went outside he could hear trees snapping as a landslide tumbled down the mountainside. Several homes were evacuated. Residents were allowed back later in the afternoon after a geo-technical survey indicated that should a major landslide occur, the debris would miss the houses. Rockfalls and landslides are no stranger to the Illawarra, but the last weeks rains has made the situation worse.