South coast flooding: Nowra Riverfront Caravan Park managers predict sleepless nights
Heavy rainfall over the weekend has seen the worst flooding to hit parts of the south coast in 30 years, forcing caravan park owners to ‘work around the clock’ to keep people safe.
The South Coast News
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The Shoalhaven River has seen its largest flooding event in 30 years.
Heavy rainfall over the weekend caused significant river level rises along the Shoalhaven River, but thankfully rainfall has eased since Sunday afternoon.
In a flooding alert, the Bureau of Meteorology said the Shoalhaven River peaked on Monday morning.
“The Shoalhaven River at Nowra (AHD) peaked at 4.13 metres around 9am … and is currently at 4.08 metres and falling with moderate flooding,” BOM said in a warning issued about 11.43am.
As of 2.45pm, the Shoalhaven River at Nowra (AHD) was 3.75m and falling, although water is expected to remain high for some time.
The North Nowra Riverfront Caravan Park was inundated with floodwaters Sunday and Monday, leading to a few “very, very late nights”, van park manager Kylie Druce said.
“We’ve worked around the clock since Saturday,” she said.
“We started by going through our evacuation list, looking at the severe weather warnings, flood warnings, tide charts.
“Everything impacts on our plan.”
A number of van owners towed their caravans to higher ground before floodwaters rushed over the banks, she said.
Historically known as the Shoalhaven Ski Club, the holiday park is adjacent to Shoalhaven Zoo about three kilometres west of the Nowra Bridge.
The vans still on site have avoided damage.
“It was a very calm operation. We’ve got a lot of wonderful people at our park. People got here (over the weekend) to tow their vans. My husband used the tractor to take others to higher ground (at the holiday park).”
She said the worst was impact was fom about 5am onwards on Monday.
“A lot of people have breathed a sigh of relief. But, you have to remain vigilant.”
The second lot of flooding at the park this year has added to the struggle, many business owners have share across the south coast through the end of 2019 and 2020.
“We had bushfires, we were flooded in February, coronavirus closed us from March to May and we re-opened in June.”
Further east along the river, floodwaters have closed roads in and around some parts of Shoalhaven Heads.
Kiama’s SES Unit was busy with three rescues near Shoalhaven Heads as floodwaters continued to rise at the Shoalhaven River.
“Several motorists were rescued from 4WD vehicles. In one situation, a man driving a van was so deep in floodwaters that it was flowing into the car through the window seals. When teams arrived, the man was on the windscreen awaiting rescue,” NSW Kiama SES Unit said on social media.
“In another rescue, teams paddled a four kilometre round trip in an inflatable rescue raft to rescue horses stuck in floodwaters.
“The Shoalhaven River has peaked but floodwaters are expected to remain high for several hours. Make safe decisions and never enter floodwaters.”