Eurobodalla council workers and even community-minded citizens have been out today Wednesday cleaning up after the massive storm that hit the Narooma and Dalmeny area.
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Both the north and south breakwater arms of the Narooma bar have copped serious damage, but these structures along with the damaged Narooma town wharf, are the responsibility of the NSW Department of Primary Industries – Lands.
The most serious situation for council is the land slip on Centenary Drive with trees falling down due to the unstable ground, forcing the closure of the Mill Bay boardwalk. Read more
Council works supervisor Nick Ziviani said the good news that tree loppers were at work on Wednesday afternoon and the boardwalk should reopen by the end of the day.
How long it will take to repair and reopen Centenary Drive is unclear as council has started the process of seeking the necessary approvals and doing the engineering work.
Mr Viviani said the both the northern breakwater at the bar had suffered damaged where waves had washed over, while there was undercutting at the southern breakwater near Australia Rock, and the road had been closed at this point, as had access to the north side of Bar Beach.
Council had been in touch with Department of Lands that had was making storm-damaged infrastructure a priority and would be out in upcoming days assessing the damage.
One positive from the flood was that council’s existing roadworks and construction of a new roundabout on Riverside Drive came through the storm relatively unscathed and Mr Ziviani said the plan was to have the road at least partially open for this long weekend.
It wasn’t only council workers out doing the clean up as John and Lesley Mordike and some other friends were out picking up rubbish washed up by the flood waters along the foreshore at the Big 4 Easts Narooma caravan park.
“We’ve found a couple of thongs, an almost brand new child’s sneaker, one only, loads of plastic like Tweed bait packets and also bottles and styrofoam cups,” they said.
They and the coffee club from Saint Paul’s Anglican Church regularly do little clean-up along the foreshore, but this day they had already picked up two big garbage bags full.
The churchgoers were working alongside council workers and contractor Jae Constable in his mini loader scraping up piles of vegetation, and the foreshores at both Narooma and Kianga had already produced 12 truckloads of debris and there was much more to go.
The Quarterdeck and The Inlet restaurants that were inundated by flood waters and a king tide on Sunday night both remained closed on Wednesday, although Chis Scroggy hoped to reopen the Quarterdeck later this week.
Narooma VRA out during storm
The Narooma VRA Rescue Squad assisted the Moruya SES during the storm completing a total of four jobs:
Central Tilba - Sandbagging of a residence from water off the hill.
Assist Police with a tree removal off Loader Parade.
Assess a tree removal for SES in Eastaway Ave.
Completed a door knock of the the Flat including Lynch St, Nichelsen St, McMillan Rd, Brice St, Hyland Ave, Barker Pde and Field St residences prior to the king tide. Volunteers then sandbagged three residences that were threatened by the rising water.
On Monday, the VRA liaised with council and SES for additional sand and bags for the residences to do further protection for the Monday's king tide.
Stan Gorton
Walkley-nominated journalist based at The Islander on Kangaroo Island with an interest in the local community and the environment.
Walkley-nominated journalist based at The Islander on Kangaroo Island with an interest in the local community and the environment.
