NSW Floods: Olympians Darren Bundock, Carolijn Brouwer fear Central Coast weather
They live their life on the water, winning world titles and Olympic medals. Now it’s flooding this famous sporting couple’s Central Coast home and forecast powerful winds are causing concern.
Central Coast
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Australian Olympic medal winning skipper Darren Bundock is fearful wild winds forecast for the Central Coast on Tuesday’s will produce waves of water that will flood into his low-lying home on Tuggerah Lake and cause further damage.
Multiple world sailing champion Bundock, who won silver at the Sydney Olympics and bronze at the Beijing Games in 2008, lives overlooking the lake with son Kyle and partner Carolijn Brouwer, a world sailing champion, Olympian and winner of the Volvo round the world race.
Bundock and Brouwer, who went for a “kayak on the bike path’’ on Monday, have relocated many of their downstairs belongings upstairs, elevating furniture on milk crates and packing boats on top of each other to prevent them floating away.
“We are very lucky compared to others,” said Bundock, who is coaching Australia’s top sailing gold medal hopes Jason Waterhouse and Lisa Darmanin ahead of the Tokyo Olympics.
“People in one storey homes have had to get out.
“We had waves coming in from the lake at one stage and the water is at 30cm.’’
Bundock and his family are based at Berkeley Vale on the south western shore of the Tuggerah Lake. He piggy backed his son through the water so he could attend school on Monday.
“We are most concerned about the wind picking up on Tuesday,’’ Bundock said.
“That causes more waves and it’s supposed to be really bad. The waves just blows straight into our house.
“The lake is open to the ocean but it can’t get out quick enough.
“We are very lucky to be two-storey. Anyone with the single-storey house, they are already out. But we had plenty of warning to move everything upstairs and be ready for this.”
A state of natural disaster has been declared across the Central Coast as severe weather lashes the region. More than 340mm of rain has fallen over the past four days with localised flooding affecting low-lying areas around Tuggerah Lakes.
“Our new gate buckled yesterday, we’ve only had it for six months as a replacement for the one from the floods last year,’’ said Brouwer, a former world sailor of the year, on Monday.
“It came off from the pressure of the wind and waves and tied it all back up again because its like a shield for the weed and waves.
“We are expecting more than 25 knots on Tuesday and being north easterly, anything from the northerly direction is very bad. The biggest worry is the winds and waves it will create into the house.
“So we are a bit scared.’’
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