Flood watch issued for Tweed after prolonged rain

PROLONGED RAIN across the Tweed Valley has led to a flood watch for minor flooding being issued this morning.

More than 100mm of rain has been recorded over parts of the Tweed Valley with Doon Doon receiving 122mm in the 24 hours to 9am this morning (Sunday, June 11). Couchy Creek recorded 114mm, Clarrie Hall Dam 102mm and Murwillumbah 88mm.

The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) has advised the current weather system has the potential to cause minor flooding along the Tweed River valley, creeks and overland flow paths from today.

At this stage, only a flood watch has been issued by BOM, which will issue a flood warning if there is a high likelihood of minor flooding.

Such forecasts of floods are possible because most meteorological centers use high-end weather stations (if interested, learn more about weather stations here) and other sophistical instruments. Devices of this type are useful for determining rainfall intensity, wind speed, and atmospheric pressure.

A strong high-pressure system south of the Bight is slowly moving east, strengthening a ridge to the eastern Tasman Sea.

A low pressure trough lies off the NSW north coast, bringing widespread showers with local heavy falls along the northern half of the coast and adjacent ranges and is expected to persist for another several days.

Another trough has developed over northeastern inland parts of the state in response to an upper cold pool. The inland trough is expected to weaken during Monday.

Incident Controller for the SES Richmond Tweed Region, Andrew McPhee said there is a degree of uncertainty around what this weather system will bring.

“At the moment the Bureau (BOM) has been uncertain in terms of what this weather system will bring, we’ve already seen very heavy rain across the region,” he said.

“I want to get a message to all our communities about preparation and at this stage preparing for a worst case scenario.

“Our concerns are at the moment this may lead to our rivers being charged and for localised flooding including flash flooding.

“At this stage I urge everyone to prepare and take appropriate precautions around their properties so that they are well prepared for anything that may come.”

Meanwhile several Tweed residents have reported potholes on roads including on the Murwillumbah side of the Byangum Bridge and Kyogle Road before Uki village.

The bridge at Upper Burringbar that was damaged during the March 30 flood and had been temporarily repaired by Council has been washed away again.

Tweed Shire Council is urging residents to take care on the roads due to a risk of further slippages and landslides.

“The roadside environs on our steep rural roads are still saturated and any amount of rain could cause further slippages,” said Manager Infrastructure Delivery Tim Mackney.

Motorists who see fresh damage on our roads are asked to report it to Council so it can be logged for repair by telephoning our Contact Centre on 6670 2400 during office hours or 1300 292 872 after hours or by downloading Tweed Shire Council’s app from the App Store or Google Play.

“By all means tell your Facebook friends too, but please report it to us first so we can fix it,” Mr Mackney said.

“So we ask motorists to be patient, particularly in wet weather, as our roads are susceptible to more damage.”

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