‘It ripped straight through’: Waterspout leaves trail of destruction in Illawarra
Dozens of houses in Corrimal and Bellambi copped significant damage as a “mini tornado” tore through just before midnight on Saturday. Residents have described the moment of impact.
Illawarra Star
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The SES has received over 1000 calls across the Illawarra, South Coast and Southern Highlands region since Friday evening as a freak weather event continues to blast the NSW coastline.
Perhaps the most terrifying event in the Illawarra struck just before midnight on Saturday when a “mini tornado” wreaked havoc in East Corrimal, Corrimal and Bellambi.
Anthony Soar’s Eager St home in Corrimal was in the line of destruction with the operator of Soaring Above Metal Roofing describing the moment of impact.
“At about 11.30pm on Saturday I was in the house when I heard a massive bang,” Mr Soar said.
“I’ve come running out of the house and saw a massive flash in the sky. I didn’t really know what it was, but then I noticed all of my front guttering on the ground and metal roofing down the side of my house.
“There was metal everywhere. There were about 10 people out here collecting the metal because it can get picked up in the wind pretty easily so we had to clear it out.”
Mr Soar said he “sprung into work mode” to help his neighbours who were scrambling in the blackout.
“The old guy across the road’s whole roof came off in the mini tornado,” he said.
“I sprung into work mode and got my tools out of my car and jumped on his roof to try and help out in any way I could to stabilise any loose metal. At around 2am I got on my other neighbour’s roof and tarped it up.
“We cleaned up the rest of the street and realised the power lines had been cut from some flying roof sheeting. I wound up the power cable, which was obviously not live, and the power company spent two to three hours trying to get the power back on.
“The next day I spent driving around Corrimal offering my roofing services and offering help for them trying to tarp up. From what I can see it’s come from Corrimal beach and come ripping straight through in a diagonal line.”
On the easterly side of Memorial Dr, Shirley Burnside and her neighbours in Mountbatten St copped a pounding from the wicked winds, however, she wasn’t aware of the full extent of the damage until she woke up on Sunday morning.
“I just remember a big bang and something crashing and then I fell asleep,” Ms Burnside told The Illawarra Star as SES volunteers inspected the damage on her neighbour’s roof on Monday.
“When I woke up in the morning there were tiles everywhere, the whole road was covered in tiles, it was pretty bad.
“I didn’t think it was as bad as it was and I nearly died when I woke up and found the tiles everywhere.
“It was like a mini tornado and just wiped out these two houses. The lady across the road is worse off because she’s flooded inside, I’ve got no water inside, but I’ve got tiles off the roof so we’ve just got to wait and see what happens.”
The Bureau of Meteorology is blaming the line of wreckage on a waterspout, which is a spinning column of air that sucks up water to make a twisting funnel of water.
Waterspouts, the BOM indicated, usually last no more than 10 minutes and can lead to wind speeds in excess of 100km/h.
“The NSW SES and the Bureau of Meteorology received reports of damage in Corrimal consistent with a waterspout on Saturday night,” a BOM spokesperson said.
“The Bureau is unable to confirm the exact cause of the damage as these events are too small and too short lived to forecast or track via weather radars.”
Many locations throughout the Illawarra have experienced well in excess of 300mm of rain since 9am on Saturday morning with the BOM warning the wild weather is expected to continue into Monday evening.
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