Sydney wild weather: Homes and businesses destroyed as waves smash northern beaches
HUGE seas are continuing to pound the peninsula coastline but Wakehurst Parkway has been reopened after being closed due to flooding.
Nth Beaches
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- Manly to Shelly walkway washed away
- Homes and businesses destroyed
- Coogee surf club ‘like a bomb scene’
- ‘We started to panic ... no way in or out’
HUGE seas are continuing to pound the peninsula coastline but Wakehurst Parkway has been reopened after being closed due to flooding and the worst of the east coast low pressure system that has battered Sydney is abating.
McCarrs Creek Rd at Church Point was closed again this morning due a falling tree bringing down power lines.
Ferry services between Manly and the city have resumed by ferries between Palm Beach and the Central Coast are not operating due to heavy swells entering Broken Bay.
While other schools are open today, Narrabeen Lakes Public School is closed due to the roof of part of the school was blown off by winds and power lines to the school were down, cutting power to the school.
Yesterday residents of low-lying areas around Narrabeen Lagoon were evacuated, including from the Lakeside Caravan Park, and evacuation centres were established at Pittwater RSL Club and Cromer Community Centre.
The huge seas lashing the coast have caused serious erosion, particularly along the Collaroy-Narrabeen beachfront, undermining the front of the Beach Club at Collaroy and threatening homes further north, while a beachfront swimming pool collapsed into the sea.
Gillian Burrows lives in units near the beachside properties damaged by huge swells.
She said within an hour the properties had become engulfed in high seas.
“About 5.30pm in the third house along the beach, there were five backpackers that I know sitting on the beach,” she said.
“They went out and moved all of their furniture in. The waves were hitting all their plants and they had a big bonfire.”
An hour later she walked back past and everything was gone.
“We saw the bonfire disappear in one wave,” she said.
The Beach Shed on the beachfront at Dee Why was smashed by the waves battering Dee Why and is not expected to reopen for some time.
Many beachfront properties were still at risk today as the heavy seas continued to pound the coast and many of them have been severely eroded.
The highest rainfall on the northern beaches in the past 24 hours was 143mm at Frenchs Forest, followed by 114mm at Narrabeen and 112mm at Manly.
But Warringah-Pittwater State Emergency Service controller Wayne Lyne said the number of call-outs received by the SES was lower than expected from such a severe storm, probably due to homeowners taking greater precautions to protect their properties.
He said there had been 637 call-outs so far, as of 9am, which was much lower than the 1100 received during the storm that hit the northern beaches in April last year.
“Given the complexity of this event, that’s a small number of jobs,” Mr Lyne said.
“So we got off comparatively due to p taking notice of warnings and doing home maintenance.”
Mr Lyne said about 700 people were evacuated from their homes at Narrabeen and that a number of business in the area were flooded.
“People said it was the worst flooding in Narrabeen that they’d seen in 50 or 60 years,” he said.
He said it would be a while before the full extent of the flood damage was known.
SES crews from Manly and Warringah-Pittwater were joined by crews from Wagga and Griffith, while three crews from the Hunter Valley are expected to arrive today.
Fire & Rescue NSW crews and Rural Fire Service crews are also involved in the massive clean-up.
The Westpac Life Saver Rescue Helicopter Rescue was called to Manly this morning after receiving reports a surfer was in danger in the huge seas.
The surfer managed to make it back to the shore just as the helicopter was arriving.
Residents who need assistance from the SES should call 132 500.
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