Broken Hill, in far western New South Wales, has been left reeling after record rainfall led to a drowning death and damaged roads and footpaths.
The State Emergency Service was called to several flood rescues after up to 140mm of rain fell on parts of the city on Tuesday afternoon.
Police said a 56-year-old man who was in the process of assisting friends in flood waters on Menindee Road, 35km east of Broken Hill, got out of his car and was swept into a concrete pipe.
Emergency services were called just after 10.30pm but were unable to revive him.
The mayor of Broken Hill, Tom Kennedy, said the town regularly experienced flooding when hit by sudden storms.
“But this was probably twice what we’d get in a normal downpour,” he said.
“It was enough to go from one side of the road to the other, and in a lot of streets and up on to the footpaths.”
The Palace hotel, described as the “spiritual home of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert”, had its cellar flooded by “a good 10 to 12cm across the floor”, manager Esther La Rovere said.
La Rovere, who grew up in Broken Hill, said it is the most flood water she has seen in 12 years.
“We’ve got a large cellar which has got … beautiful old glass bricks which are in the footpath, to let light down into the cellar, and there’s also an intermittent vented brick to keep the air circulating into the cellar, so basically the water just poured down those.
“I spent a couple of hours with the wet vacuum sucking the water out of the bar carpet, once we got all that sorted we went home about 8pm. There wasn’t much I could do about the cellar at that point, we’re just assessing that now.
“This is nothing compared to Lismore, so I think it just puts it all in perspective. It’s a bit embarrassing complaining about it when you see what other people are going through around the country at the moment.”
She said the downpour lasted about an hour and caused the streets to flood quickly.
“About 3.30pm it started raining, coming in sideways.”
“People never understand why our gutters are so high when they come to town, but when they see those downpours they get it.
“Basically all the gutters were full, going out on to the street and coming up over the footpath.
“I think the city seemed to cop the really big hit, both the main street and the street adjacent where the water was up well above car wheels, and probably higher.”
‘Impossible to get through’
Ross Leddra lives part-time between Broken Hill and Menindee, where he reckons only about 15mm of rain was recorded overnight. His wife, Carol, was in Broken Hill during the downpour.
“She said some places had 70mm and other places 110m and more. That’s a huge amount of water,” he said.
“I came through from Menindee back to Broken Hill about three weeks ago when they had nearly 50mm in a very short time, and when I got there the streets were flowing.
“This week’s amount of water would have been at least triple the amount of water I went though. It would be impossible to get through.”
The mayor said the clean up had begun.
“I’ve already received a number of phone calls from residents around the community asking when council will be able to get out and repair footpaths,” Kennedy said.
“A lot of the footpaths have been washed away, so you’ve got gullies created where people could potentially fall over and cause damage to themselves.
“They understand council will take a little while before they can get on to that because a number of roads have also been completely washed out, so there’s just a matter of being patient.
“We always appreciate how patient the Broken Hill community can be.”
Kennedy said storm water from the town travels to the Imperial lakes and the Stephens Creek reservoir. When those catchments are full, it is released to the Menindee lakes.
“I would say that the reservoirs would be full. We got a considerable amount of water a couple of weeks previously – about 35mm in about 15 minutes – so a lot of that would have run into our reservoirs.”
He said the death of the man in Menindee Road flood waters was “very tragic”.
“People appreciate the fact that this poor fellow was out helping other people that were stranded in the flood waters.
“As a city, we send our condolences to the loved ones of the man.”
