Businesses assessing damage as flood clean-up begins in Hobart
UPDATED: A SANDY Bay home has lost its roof in wild winds, smashing into a neighbour’s windows and littering insulation throughout the front yard as nearby residents woke up to properties inundated with water.
Tasmania
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UPDATED: A SANDY Bay home has lost its roof in wild winds, smashing into a neighbour’s windows and littering insulation throughout the front yard as nearby residents woke up to properties inundated with water.
Residents of the Manresa Court home in Sandy Bay were woken at 4am as the roof tore away from the two-storey property, leaving the upstairs bedrooms protected solely by plasterboard as wild weather lashed southern Tasmania.
Samantha Skillern was sleeping when she was woken by an “incredible crashing noise” which residents initially thought was a tree falling onto the house.
“It took us a little while to work out what was going on,” Ms Skillern said.
“There’s one section of the roof that’s still on, but the rest of it’s all open. The plaster’s still there, but it’s just a matter of another lot of rain coming through and there won’t be a top storey anymore.”
Fellow Sandy Bay resident Tom Murray woke to a virtual lake in his front yard, with water inundating a garage and flooding his car.
“I don’t think (the car) will go again,” he said
“You can see the plastic containers floating (in the garage), hopefully that’s all the photos and the important stuff.
“There’s a good fridge in there.
“I don’t get fussed that easily. We’re only renting the house so that’s a good thing.”
The University of Tasmania remains in the early stages of assessing the impact of flooding at its Sandy Bay campus.
The campus has been closed and locked down after floodwater inundated the law and engineering faculties overnight.
Books from the law library have been left scattered throughout the carpark and nearby oval.
About a foot of water impacted the law library, with mud spread over lower shelves and furniture inside.
A UTAS spokesman said at this stage the university was focused on ensuring the safety of staff and students, but was likely to have further comment later today.
Many Sandy Bay businesses remain closed today with power outages continuing to affect the suburb.
EARLIER: BUSINESSES and home-owners hit hard by flooding in Hobart have started the daunting task of cleaning up after torrential rain and fierce winds hammered southern Tasmania overnight.
MORE: RAINFALL NEARS RECORD AS STORM SHUTS CBD ROADS
John Zito, who owns the Nutpatch chocolate shop in Hobart, said he arrived at work at about 5am today to find his store flooded for the second time in a matter of months.
Nutpatch was also flooded during the Taste of Tasmania festival.
“I’ve been mopping for an hour and a half and I’m not getting anywhere,” Mr Zito said.
“I think I’m not the only one that’s going to be in this boat.”
Despite the flooding, Mr Zito’s expensive machinery was not damaged, and he is hopeful of opening today.
“I’m hoping to [open] because it’s Mother’s Day on Sunday, so I’ve got to try and get it cleaned up before 10am because Fridays and Saturdays are normally my busiest days,” he said.
It is believed Salamanca Fresh in Salamanca has also been inundated, with distribution from the Lenah Valley milk factory disrupted by floodwaters.
Avis car rentals sales assistant Matt Hooper is expecting a damage bill of “hundreds of thousands”, with six or seven vehicles damaged at the site and four or five vehicles in the Grand Chancellor car park, which has been flooded.
“I came down this morning and there were four or five of our cars ... in the middle of the road, which had to be towed away,” Mr Hooper said.
“Then I opened the door here, there was knee-high water through the whole shop, cars in our wash bay area have been ruined, all our computers are ruined because all the powerpoints were on the floor.
“Our roller door won’t open, we have to do it manually, and there’s mud everywhere.”
Residents of a share house in Manresa Court, Sandy Bay, had a rude surprise when the roof lifted right off the two-storey property.
An SES arrived just after daylight to do what they could to help.
MORE: WHERE TO FIND HELP AFTER FLOOD
More to come ....
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