Damaging winds and surf are expected to continue across the entire coast

ABC NEWS (Australia)

The SES has turned its focus to the South Coast where six-hourly rainfall totals of up to 80 millimetres are likely.  The ABC spoke to Shoalhaven City Council Mayor Patricia White who says the South Coast has seen an unprecedented amount of rain.

Transcript

00:00last night it started about five o'clock yesterday afternoon and last night it was a really wild

00:10night down in Ulladulla in southern Shoalhaven. I've lived there for 30 years and I've never seen

00:16anything like it. The winds that hit us and also the rain it was non-stop and the rain was actually

00:24going sideways and we received over 200 millimetres of rain in Ulladulla and the surrounding areas

00:31which has led to the emergency services warnings in relation to Burrill Lake, Sanctuary Points and

00:39George's Basin, Lake Conjola and Lake Tabauri. Such a wide area isn't it? I mean you've got power

00:47outages there as well? So we've got major power outages and quite frankly in my opinion it was

00:56just too dangerous last night for anybody to go out and try to start fixing the power outages.

01:02What that has led to is we have had major sewer overflows because there was no power to the

01:09pumping stations and we're still trying to get that all fixed. We have notified the EPA etc in relation

01:19to these sewage overflows but I'm asking anybody who's in the Shoalhaven over the next coming days

01:27not to swim in the in our you know recreational waterways. We have 13 of them they're all in flood.

01:34We have a big clean up and give us time to do that clean up. Wow that is a worrying

01:39situation. Have people the service has been dealing with lots of trees down?

01:48There's so many trees down it's not funny. Thankfully I have not received any reports that

01:54anybody's house or anything has been hit by a tree. We had last night the Princess Highway

02:00down through Burrill and up further. It was flooded you couldn't get down or up the highway.

02:05We have people trapped, well not actually trapped but streets blocked off by floodwaters where people

02:11can't get out from their homes and the SES, RFS and the police are monitoring all of that and working

02:21with the people in relation to getting them out of their homes etc. I think it's been about 25 years

02:27before since Burrill Lake has flooded in that period of time. The Shoalhaven is used to disasters. We've

02:35had over the last five years you know we've had the most disasters in natural disasters that in the

02:42whole state of New South Wales. So we are resilient. We know how now to go and clean up the mess and

02:48clean up the job. We're just asking residents to be patient, give us time and we will get it sorted out.

02:55Yeah and you've still got to get through today with the weather continuing like this. What's the

03:02road network like? I gather you a bridge collapsed and some places are inaccessible.

03:07Yeah so the road network, the local road network, the highway is now open but the local road network

03:19in around the basin, around Sanctuary Point, around Sussex Inlet, down Burrill Lake in

03:26Interlake Conjola, the road works are cut off by floodwaters and I'm really asking people don't walk,

03:32ride, play or drive in the floodwaters because it's just so unsafe and especially you don't know

03:38what our road looks like underneath that floodwater. So if you try to drive through,

03:42we had in the last big east coast low we had a sinkhole, major sinkhole on a road. That has had

03:49problems again this time with the floodwaters so I'm just asking everybody to stay safe. I also know

03:56from the Endeavour Energy that there are power lines down all over the place and some of those power

04:02lines could still be live. So we really need to make sure that you know your own safety to stay at home

04:11if you can. If you need to go out, just drive really carefully. I understand, I'm in Nowra presently,

04:18but I understand in Lake Conjola, sorry in Awadulla, the winds have started to pick up again and it is

04:24getting again another dousing of torrential rain. So we just need everybody to be safe. I really want

04:32to thank Endeavour Energy, SES, our council crews, the RFS and the police for keeping us all safe.

04:41Yeah, it is a major operation, isn't it? We wish you the best, Mayor Patricia White. Thank you so much

04:47for talking to us. Thank you.

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