The South Coast suburb of Kiama experienced heavy rainfall earlier this month.
Roughly 205mm of rainfall fell between May 9 -13, as multiple areas along the NSW coast experienced downpours nearly double the expected monthly average. Both the Wollongong and Shellharbour Councils also organised spots for sandbag collection, to use as barrier protection for house flooding.
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This follows the damaging rainfall that hit the east coast of Australia in April, causing damage to many homes and business places.
In the Sydney region alone, the NSW SES responded to 5000 distress calls as the floods damaged more than 60 homes, leaving 17 uninhabitable.
Bulli resident, Lawrence Cupitt, whose house was damaged by the flood, said the situation was more complex than is reported.
“The river behind us that caused this has flooded previously, meaning that our insurance refuses to cover it,” he said.
“I think as the climate gets worse we’re going to struggle to find that protection”.
Source: Bureau of Meteorology
Although environmental scientists agree that the intensity of rain has been seen before, there is evidence that there will be this type of weather event more regularly and at more regular intervals in the future.
Research conducted by the Office of Environment and Heritage predicts that there will be a greater disparity between drought and rain periods across NSW.
