Evacuation Orders Given Out as New South Wales Experience Severe Weather
Thousands were rescued and brought to evacuation centers, as a tempestuous weather hit New South Wales on Tuesday. According to the ABC, the Bureau of Meteorology reported the low pressure was expected to shift movement from the coast and eventually deteriorate on Wednesday.
People living close to Sussex Inlet and St. Georges Basin were given an evacuation order, considering floods were expected as torrential rains continued to fall. Evacuation centers were located at the Sussex Inlet Bowling Club and the Country Club at Sanctuary Point.
Terara, Nowra, Victoria's Snowy River and Canowindra's Belubula River were also given flood warnings as the bad weather continued.
On Tuesday, The State Emergency Service (SES) announced that Mt. Brandon Road, Jamberoo Road and Jerrara Road were in danger of being flooded once the Jerrara Dam, located at the west of Illawarra town of Kiama, overflowed. Evacuation order in areas around the dam would be implemented until 48 hours after the bad weather moves away from New South Wales.
"Jerrara Dam has been to numerous levels of alert on occasions in recent years," Deputy Commissioner Newton said. "Kiama Council is actually decommissioning Jerrara Dam as a scheduled decommissioning."
"As part of that process they're deconstructing the main dam wall, and due to the influx of rain that we've had in the last 24 hours the dam [is] now filled up and is flowing over the dam wall, which is obviously meant to hold the water back," Newton added.
"We have concerns that [the] flow - it's considerable flow - will scour the remaining dam wall to a point where the integrity can be compromised."
"It's a precaution at the moment but there is a real threat at this stage that we may have some issues further downstream, particularly if we get a large scour occur at once where a volume of water ends up flowing downstream."
According to Sky News, the severe weather warning announced in the south coast and Illawarra was already lifted on Wednesday, but the areas remained under close supervision. Also, residents at New South Wales were given a go signal to return to their homes.
The Jerrara dam had been inspected by the engineers from Kiama Council, along with New South Wales SES, and declared "all clear."
