Southwest Sydney flood watch: Region braces for potential fifth event as more rainfall looms
One southwest Sydney resident has spoken of their anxiety as the city remains standby with weather watchers warning this weekend could see flooding. See how southwest Sydney is preparing.
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Residents in southwest Sydney are bracing for a potential fifth flood event in less than a year.
Homes and businesses in the regions were overrun by floodwaters twice in March, once in April and again in July with some locations impacted every single time.
Suburbs such as Camden, Campbelltown, Picton, Cobbitty, Menangle, Milperra, Moorebank, Chipping Norton, and Liverpool have copped intense rainfall.
The seemingly never ending wet and miserable weather has seen 2022 recorded as the wettest year in Sydney since records began in 1858.
After parts of Sydney copped up to 80mm of rain on Thursday, some - including those in southwestern Sydney and the Hawkesbury and Nepean river catchment area - are bracing for the worst.
While Sydneysiders woke to sunny skies on Friday Bureau of Meteorology meteorologist Jonathan How warned it was only a minor reprieve.
“There‘s more on the way, there’s another 40 to 80 up to 100mm on the cards with the two next systems coming down. The first one this afternoon and the next one tomorrow and then Sunday,” Mr How told the ABC on Friday.
Moorebank local Bruce Broadhurst has lived next to the Georges River since 1963. An engineer by trade, he’s passionate about boats and has a few in his backyard, along with a pet sheep.
He’s also lived through every major flooding event in the area since then, and keeps a record of the water height outside his home.
Along the way, he’s rescued a fair few of his neighbours in his tinny, and remembers when the milk and bread men needed to be taken around by boat after flooding in the 60s.
Even with his local knowledge, the flooding is too hard to predict. On Wednesday, he was given notice by the SES of potential flooding in the next seven days.
“But what do you do at midnight when you get an evacuation order two hours out?” Mr Broadhurst said. “What are you going to do? You stay there.”
His neighbour, Steve Arnold, was supposed to be going on a cruise with the rest of his family this weekend, but instead he’s at his home in case it floods again.
Up until 2020, the floods he dealt with were laughable. He would collect fish and eels marooned on his street, gently place them in his wheelie bin, and take them back to the river.
But they’ve been deadly serious since.
The July floods caught him off guard, while he was out at the movies with his wife. He quickly rushed back home, but by the time he got there, water was knee deep in his garage, where all of his power tools, some bikes, and expensive equipment was stored.
Almost all of it was destroyed, while the items he could salvage are still on the second level of his house.
“Five floods in seven months?” he said. “I can’t keep up with that.”
Just down the road, Moorebank resident Lisa Jenkins won’t be staying in her home if the water starts to rise this weekend.
She has lived in her Newbridge Rd apartment, with her husband and son, since 1995, and said since 2020 the flooding has only gotten worse and more frequent.
Now, the terror and unpredictability of floodwaters isn’t something she wants to face again, especially as she has a heart condition.
“I just can’t be here because the ambulance can’t come,” Ms Jenkins said.
In past floods, she’s had to return to her apartment to pick up medication, wading through water on the street coming up to her chest.
Their prep plans are the same as always, move the cars to higher ground, and bring the washing machine and dryer upstairs.
They’ve lost the appliances once, and had to pay for replacements because the excess on the insurance wouldn’t be worth the cost.
She rents the apartment, and while they have contents insurance, flood insurance is an additional $7,000 per year — a lot of money for a family on a single income.
During the first flood of July, her husband and son took a full day off to clean all the mud and water out. By 5:00pm that day, the river rose again, ruining all their hard work.
“We live here because we can afford to live here,” Ms Jenkins said. “Rent around here is just ridiculous.”
During the last floods, the water was two steps away from coming into their home, which is on the second level of the building.
“Until you see it with your own eyes you cannot imagine what it’s like,” she said.
“It really is scary.”
One of her former neighbours, who lived in the apartment at the back of the building, closest to the river, had only moved in for a few short days when the July floods swept through. He called the SES to rescue him in the early hours of the morning.
It took him three weeks to return to his apartment after that, Ms Jenkins said, and he left shortly after.
Raymond, who did not want to give his surname, lives on Rickard Rd, Moorebank, on the banks of the Georges River, and said it is a beautiful place to live on any other day of the year, when it isn’t flooding.
His home is part of a voluntary acquisition zone, after local, state, and federal governments agreed in 1984 it was an error to develop the area, and decided to buy back the properties.
Many people on the street have moved since, but the few that remain are either waiting on offers, or have chosen to remain.
He works in Campbelltown, also expected to be hit by a downpour, and knows that when it rains at work, the water will likely end up in the Georges River, travelling all the way back to his house.
After living through flood after flood, including three this year, he knows exactly which parts of his house will get water based on the height of the river.
“We’re getting a bit experienced now,” he said.
“The river rises very slowly, you can watch it come up, that’s the beauty, it doesn’t come up like a tsunami.
“As soon as they predict 4.2m, I know where the water is going to end up.”
For Raymond, the issue is that you can’t predict what the weather does.
“If you don’t want it to flood, don’t live next to the river,” he said.
“But you have to live next to the river these days, it floods everywhere.”
Another woman, who lived on the same street but did not want to be named, talked about the stress of knowing another flood is potentially around the corner.
“There were two in July,” she said. “After cleaning up the first flood it got even worse.”
Her partner didn’t sleep on Wednesday night, conscious of the relentless rain and potential for their home to be inundated with water again.
“After moving everything, raising everything up, it’s very stressful on us,” she said.
At the same time, she’s frustrated that several months after the July floods, Liverpool Council is yet to pick up water-damaged mattresses strewn across her street.
The latest flood watch alert from the Bureau of Meteorology said there is a minor flood warning at the Nepean River and a minor to moderate flood warning at the Georges River.
In an update to the Wollondilly Shire community posted to social media on Thursday night, Mayor Matt Gould said
“The second front is expected to start impacting us late tomorrow [Friday] and over the weekend, with up to another 50-100mm possible over Saturday and Sunday before conditions should ease Monday,” he said.
“Fortunately most of the impacts we are seeing so far are nuisance flooding.
“The sandbags stations across the shire remain available for anyone that needs to prepare for further rainfall over the weekend and are at Picton SES, Silverdale RFS, The Oaks RFS, Menangle RFS and Appin RFS.”
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