As the recent severe weather event threatened the Central Coast, Council formed an Incident Management Team in advance of the impacts being realised to ensure that we were mitigating the potential impacts to our community as much as possible.

Council closely monitored weather predictions, roads, lakes, waterways and beaches for potential flooding and storm impacts as heavy rainfall and unpredictable weather hit the region. Council also heavily relied on the advice of expert personnel in managing these matters.

As Council moved into a recovery phase, a Recovery Committee was established and Council worked alongside Resilience NSW to provide information and assistance for the community.

Administrator Rik Hart has been impressed with the strength of the Central Coast Community when faced with an emergency situation and dedication of Council staff in minimising the impact of the event on the community and making sure they were informed.

“This recent flooding event has demonstrated the effort that communities living in the risk areas have made with their emergency preparation plans which has created an even stronger and more resilient community this year," Mr Hart said.

"Whilst clean-up is well underway and region wide impacts have dramatically improved, there are still parts of our community personally affected in their day-to-day living and navigating a longer term recovery.

"I’m pleased to see the co-ordinated efforts between emergency services and agencies, and community volunteers to ensure those impacted are supported.”

Summary of Council response to the floods and recovery and current status

Roads

• Road signs and barriers were placed to advise residents and motorists where storm impacts occurred and to clock access as necessary.
• Council continues to closely monitor the region’s 2,200km road network and responds urgently to fix potholes, remove any fallen trees from roads and inspect and repair any other damage as quickly as possible following the prolonged period of heavy rain.
• Council’s Emergency Incident Committee is continuing to liaise with Transport NSW to collectively address impacts on roads.
• Throughout this severe weather event, Council’s road crews attended over 120 after-hour callouts, and closed more than 80 roads across the Coast.
• There has been 21 landslips across the coast that affected roads. All have been made safe however there are two sites on Wisemans Ferry Road where part of the road remains impacted. Specialist engineers will be required to investigate all landslip sites to determine appropriate actions to undertake more permanent repair works which will take some time to complete. During this time Council staff will continue to monitor sites in order to keep the area as safe as possible.
• Since the severe weather event commenced, Council has repaired over 8,000 potholes and continues to undertake proactive inspections and repairs and attend to customer requests according to priority. Water entering and weakening the underlying road pavement and the added stress of traffic is the main cause of potholes, which is why we see more potholes after periods of heavy rain.
• Wisemans Ferry Rd is still impacted with access limited to emergency vehicles and local residents only due to dangerous conditions. The roads remain badly damaged and non-locals are asked to please stay away from the area at this time.
• Our Community is encouraged to continue reporting road issues to Council through customer service (phone 1300 463 954 or submit report online at centralcoast.nsw.gov.au via the ‘Report an issue’ page).

Waterways

• Council staff and flood engineers monitored the conditions and latest data and worked with the NSW SES and Bureau of Metrology to understand anticipated peak flood levels and risks with the waterways. Council staff provided intelligence and recommendations to the NSW SES in relation to projected flood levels and impacts throughout the event, with high degrees of accuracy.
• Crews were onsite responding to flooding and storm impacts as needed and opened Wamberal, Avoca, Terrigal and Cockrone Lagoons as they had reached the flood trigger levels. The Entrance Channel was proactively widened in preparation for continued severe weather event, while natural scouring also occurred.
• Staff supported NSW State Emergency Service (SES) when they issued a flood evacuation order for residents around Tuggerah Lake and surrounding areas, as well as other low lying areas including Wyong and Yarramalong.
• Beaches were closed due to conditions and debris in the waterways. Council crews are currently undertaking impact assessments around Tuggerah Lakes to ascertain how much debris including wrack has been washed up.

Beaches

• All 15 patrolled Central Coast beaches and The Grant McBride baths remained closed throughout the major storm event for a 12 day period, with regular water quality testing being undertaken at all sites.
• All beach sites reopened from Monday 14 March following improved water quality results. While the patrol flags and beach locations have reopened Central Coast beaches and our water ways will continue to have large debris wash ashore for some weeks and Council crews will continue to monitor and collect debris.
• Over 35 tonnes of debris has been collected to date.
• The Grant McBride baths site has also reopened after Council crews cleaned all pools earlier in week. Water clarity at our beaches will continue to be impacted by the runout of Hawksbury river and & Tuggerah Lakes system for some weeks.
• The standard advice following a storm event is to avoid swimming in our ocean beaches for at least 24 hours and for three days at our estuarine locations.

Water and sewer services

• Our water and sewer network has returned to normal operation, including our Vacuum Sewerage Systems (located at Davistown, St Huberts Island, West Gosford (Racecourse Road), Rocky Point, Tacoma and Tacoma South) which required flood waters to subside to begin repair work at some of these locations.
• Terrigal Lagoon, Wamberal Lagoon, Avoca Lagoon, Cochran Lagoon, Lake Macquarie near Koowong Road at Gwandalan, Tuggerah Lake at The Entrance (south of the bridge), Avoca Beach near the SLSC and the outlet of Salt Water Creek were all impacted by sewer overflows and storm water runoff. Pollution signs have been removed from some locations that have returned good water quality results but signs remain in place at locations where water quality has not yet returned to an acceptable level. Council strongly advises against swimming at locations where pollution signs remain in place.
• Water quality levels can be viewed on the Beachwatch website.
• If anyone experiences a sewer system disruption, please call Council immediately on 1300 463 954.
• For all current water service interruptions please go to the Water outages page of our website.
• For all current dam water levels please go to the Love Water website.

Waste services

• Council’s waste management facilities remained open and weekly kerbside collections are continuing as normal with minor delays to bulk kerbside collection due to high demand and severe weather impacts. Waste facilities charges were reduced for flood affected waste. Additional waste collection resources have been allocated to assist emergency services at Spencer, Gunderman and surrounding communities.
• Community is advised to place flood affected household rubbish in red bins for weekly collection or larger bulk waste can be booked through 1Coast for a kerbside collection. Seagrass and smaller items of vegetation debris from lake and river flooding should be placed into green waste bins or bundled and boxed for booked 1Coast collection. For sandbags, open and empty sand in the garden and place empty bags in the red bin.

Recovery

• Pop-up Recovery Hubs set up from 14 March at Spencer Community Hall, Diggers at The Entrance or the Berkeley Community Centre, with Resilience NSW to ensure residents have access to information and support services to aid recovery following the recent severe weather event.
• Community financial support - The NSW Government has announced the Central Coast has been included in the Natural Disaster Declaration which was promoted through Council communication channels.
• Ongoing support for Spencer and Hawkesbury communities - Whilst the majority of the region continues to recover from the impacts of the recent severe weather event parts of our region are still impacted – specifically Spencer, Gunderman and surrounding communities impacted by access limitations due to the ongoing closure of Wisemans Ferry Rd to public access. With landslips, river embankment slips and dangerous road conditions, Wisemans Ferry Rd remains accessible for Emergency Vehicles and local residents only. Council staff met with community members over the weekend and inspected the area Monday 14 March to communicate current status and understand what resident needs and impacts were and to provide support. Council is continuing to work with the NSW SES and other relevant services to provide supplies and assistance during this time. Ferry service has since resumed.

 Keep up to date with any storm and flood recovery news on Council’s website 

 ENDS