disaster in action at Newcastle 08/06/2007

[acropolite (Phil)]

Thanks for the pics h0ughy, HRH liz is following the story with interest having grown up in wallsend.

[Ric]

More amazing pictures Houghy, it really shows the extent of flooding. It's incredible the extent of the weather extremes that we get in Australia, either nothing or everything at once.
It's a bit sad that none of this water will make it to any of the dams, from what I hear it will all go out to sea.

[iceman (Mike)]

yeh they really need to harness storm water for the dams..

Warragamba Dam only got something like 40mm, 10x less than what parts of the coast received.

[danielsun]

I heard on the radio this morning that looters are hitting the shops!!

[cahullian]

I havent heard or seen shops being looted. But I'm at work now and the place is like a war zone. Downed trees and branches everywhere, no water and a gas leak. No kids allowed so its not all bad lol. A few of the buildings are damaged so we are only allowed to walk under sheltered areas. Everybodys mood is good and we will be up and running in no time.

Gazz

Gazz

[iceman (Mike)]

My kids school is closed today too.

[cahullian]

Ah the sound of chainsaws in the morning.

Gazz

[venus (Lydia)]

Terrible tragedy over the weekend and unbelivable that there is 'looting' going on at a time like this

Did anyone know that the ship the 'Pasha Bulker' is only a year old?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pasha_bulker

[Dujon]

Originally Posted by iceman

Warragamba Dam only got something like 40mm, 10x less than what parts of the coast received.

Yeah, Mike, it's a crying shame. I live about 10Km north of the spillways and my weather station and 'standard' rain gauge received about 135mm over the two days. None of the run-off will benefit Sydney residents as it all enters the Nepean/Hawkesbury system from the 'wrong side' of the dam.

I suppose that it could be argued that reducing the outflow from such sources will damage the downstream ecology - in particular the off shore areas. No water flow, no run-off to provide natural nutrients to the salt water marine life. Dunno, I don't claim to be an expert in the subject.

[Omaroo (Chris Malikoff)]

Uhmm... has anyone heard from Mike Sidonio (strongmanmike) and his family? They recently moved to the Newcastle area....

[Omaroo (Chris Malikoff)]

Oh good I can answer my own question. I just had a return email from Mike, and all is well. The Sidonios live in between Maitland and Newcastle so I was a bit worried.

Please resume normal programming........

[RB (Andrew)]

We got through this relatively well compared to the Newcastle area but I've never seen so much rain, ever !
We're not too far from the tragedy at Somersby and our area received over 450mm (18 inches) of rain in two days !

The power was restored only yesterday afternoon, we were without mains power for five days, the phone lines were out for three days.
I was able to set up a small generator to run a few essential items but it was difficult.

Needless to say we're thankful that things are getting back to normal here and our thoughts are with the people who have lost loved ones and ones that are still homeless and face a big cleanup.

My apologies to all that have sent me PM's and emails, haven't had the chance to respond yet or catch up on all the threads on IIS.

[h0ughy (David)]

some shots from this afternoon - beautiful day, complete with SES people and some buildings to admire in the afternoon sun. Yep the ship is still there

[Outbackmanyep]

I don't wanna hear about Newcastle being affected by drought in the next 12 months! I guess its all over and done with there!