Topic: Coral Sea Lows - Major Flooding NE NSW / SE QLD (incl Kyogle, Lismore, Coraki): 29 Dec to 7 Jan 2008

[Gambit]

Went out 25km's north west of Kyogle today to help put up some fences at a frinds place today after they had been obliterated by the torrents that have gone through.

Incidently Kyogle registered it's 2nd largest flood on record (That's what they said on the radio).

The first photo is of Sawpit Creek at Findon which is about 15 - 20kms north of Kyogle on the Summerland Way (upstream from Kyogle) Normally a trickling stream. It appears that it turned into somewhat of a less sedate stream and somewhat of a torrent...
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The Second Pic is Findon Creek, which feed or joins with Sawpit Creek and again usually a little less agressive that what is seen here.
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The Third is another small bridge that was cleared of the debris earlier in the morning, poor old wooden bridge had held up quite well we thought!
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Here is the debris!
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The BoM have released a Severe Thunderstorm warning for this area again.
There was some rapid convection out there (Findon Creek) at about 1300 at about 30 Deg C.
At about 1430 there was some thunder and it came over quite dark.
Heading back to Lismore at about 1600 there was a really well defined shelf cloud and saw a couple of cracking CG's. Looking back West to Kyogle it was Raining again.
Tonight 2100 I have see a few flashes in Lismore itself and a bit of thunder but no rain.

Cheers All.

Mat.

[Michael Bath]

Interesting shots of the river damage there Mat - post a few more if you have any.

Mike - the Hinze Dam which supplies the Gold Coast is now full. The Rocky Creek Dam which supplies the Lismore, Ballina area etc is also well over the spillway.

MB

[Mike]

Thanks MB.  The water restrictions will still be in place even after this event is well and truly dusted?

From the looks of the river shots you can see where the high level was previously with all the grass etc flattened.  The amount of debris is huge piled on the side of the road and you wonder why people drown in swollen rivers with all these unseen dangers within!  The wooden bridges are usually a lot stronger than ones bitumised - I've found that up here, the bitumen just lifts off in slabs exposing everything, but seasoned wood is pretty resilient to such water inundations!

Did noticed the severe weather warning, the last thing the residents want is more rain, but whilst the conditions are favourable there's not much one can do but wait and wait until it clears itself.  Then it's another wait until all the water drains off and dries out!  I suspect it's something that the locals in the area have seen before and will again.

Mike

[Jason(pato)]

Heres a pic of the armada of helicopters that have descended(pun intended)upon Lismore to help out with the flood relief, if you look closely you should be able to count 11.


Certainly is an impressive sight and not one you get to see to often in this area.

[Mike]

I've seen reports that ex-TC Helen if it does not swing back in to the Gulf of Carpentaria (which is highly unlikely given the monsoon weakening) that she will track as an ECL towards NSW.  She's bringing with her a lot of rain as one would expect and if this eventuates then there's more flooding on the cards if she sits there and drags in onshore winds producing more precip.

Mike

[Gambit]

YAY more rain! Just what we need.

If we do get more, it will take very little to send the rivers back up.                                            

[Jason(pato)]

Hi Everyone,

I had heard that after the rain we had recently that our local water supply, Rocky Creek Dam was full and running over the spillway. So I couldn't resist the temptation and I packed up the family and trusty camera and went for a look. The first photo shows the dam at full or near to full capacity (when it was at its lowest, around 25%, it was several metres below this level).


Next photo shows the spillway from above although it may be hard to make out , the water was flowing quite quickly.


After this we made our way down the slope to try and get pics of the water coming down the spillway, as luck would have it there was a path leading down right to the spillways edge. The next two photos show how quickly and how much volume of water was coming down. Note the whitewater in the water in the first shot, thats from grass stems that had grown there from lack of water running over this area before this event.




The last shot shows the volume of water running away downstream, seems an awful waste but the water has to go somewhere. You could hear the roar of it from about 500m away.


Was a pretty amazing sight as I haven't seen water run over the spillway for a number of years, and when I did see it last it was only a mere trickle. Hope you enjoy the pics,

Cheers Jason

[Mike]

For all the negatives of the flooding of homes etc there's always a positive side of things like this, farming, catchments, dams - it's something this country is used to with the change in extremes from drought to flood.  I'd rather see creeks and rivers with white water flowing through them than dead animals sun dried lying on the parched earth any day.  This is all good for many areas regardless, many farming communities will be loving it and why not, they work their guts out keeping the country fed!

Mike

[Peter J]

Mike,

This is one thing I agree with strongly. Those farming communities in northern NSW and south-eastern QLD should be lapping this water up gracefully. It is a miracle for them. The only downside is that according to news reports here (VIC), some of the farmers there have lost crops and large numbers of stock/cattle, and it may take them some time to recover.

Big Pete

[Mike]

It's a double edged sword.  Nobody can control it and it's a fact of life in all parts of the world.  The regeneration aspect will go berserk once everything dries out sufficiently and this type of weather disaster has a way of being a positive thing in the end.  Let's hope so!

Mike

[Harley Pearman]

Hello

I am sure many were watching but this flood event was occurring at the same time as 2 other regions of Australia were experiencing flood events being areas south west and south of Darwin (From Tropical Cyclone Helen) and around Cape York Peninsula (Monsoon rains). Rainfalls from the latest north east NSW / SE Queensland event were comparable to those occurring in the other two regions mentioned above.

Excellent photos and reports from everyone.

The drawback from this flood event is the damage bill. I am aware that the insurance bill from this has already hit $200 million (Which will probably rise as more claims are made) making it another expensive storm / flood event for the summer 2007 / 2008.

Harley Pearman

[Michael Bath]

I have put up some galleries of flood pics taken over the several days of the floods in the Northern Rivers, particularly along the Wilsons and Richmond rivers.

McLeans Ridges, Eltham, Boatharbour, Lismore Friday 4th Jan

South Lismore, Fairy Hill, Casino, Leycester, Rock Valley, Kyogle, Lismore Saturday 5th Jan

McKees Hill to Clovass on the Bruxner Hwy Sunday 6th Jan.  Some storms in that lot too.

On Monday the NSW State Emergency Service head office in Wollongong phoned me up asking if they could use some of the pics I had posted on the forum. Sure no problem !  I casually mentioned it would have been good to see the flooding around Coraki but there was no way to get there because all roads were cut by the major flooding in the Richmond River. I was amazed to hear a response of "we'll have to get you up in a chopper to have a look then"  !  I wasn't sure if this was for real but a return call 2 hours later and it was all organised. WOW !  They wanted me to get photos of the flooding and SES volunteers in action. So Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning I had helicopter flights to the Coraki area. Wednesday another flight to Coraki then two flood boat missions with the SES guys. It has been quite an experience to see what goes on operationally and to see the flooding from the air.


















Aerial shots between Lismore and Coraki including cattle rescues along the Wilsons River near Coraki Monday 7th Jan

Aerial shots between Lismore and Coraki, and at Coraki (opportunities were a bit limited this day) Tuesday 8th Jan

Again down to Coraki then two flood boat operations with SES guys and girls Wednesday 9th Jan

regards, Michael

[Peter J]

Mike B

What an amazing opportunity! and to have it fall in your lap like that! Wow!

Big Pete.

[Jimmy Deguara]

Michael,

I knew the vantage point you would have would reveal a pretty different scale one sees on the ground! Awesome! It makes it look more real as well!!

As Pete says, a great opportunity!

Regards,

Jimmy Deguara