Barrier Daily Truth

Flooded in a flash

Saturday, 28th January, 2012

LAKESIDE PLAZA: Shoppers wading through knee-deep water yesterday evening in the Centro carpark.

By Kurtis Eichler

Severe thunderstorms and strong winds lashed the city suddenly late yesterday, dropping nearly two inches of rain in a torrential downpour that flooded the streets, knocked out the power supply and caused businesses to close.

Threatening, dark clouds rolled in from the west during the day and in the evening the storm broke.

Throughout the day the Bureau of Meteorology warned that flash flooding and damaging winds were on their way and the sky opened about 5.30pm.

Minutes later the city centre was plunged into darkness when the power went out. It was restored about 45 minutes later but the Silver City Cinema had to cancel the night’s shows because the power kept dropping out.

The Regional Art Gallery was about to open three exhibitions when the storm struck. Water leaked into the gallery and ran down some of the walls and when the lights went out the staff feared that the opening would have to be called off.

They even turned some people away but when the power came back on the shows were able to go ahead. 

The Weather Channel’s Dick Whitaker told the BDT that the spectacular thunderstorm was part of a large block of storms that were the result of a tropical low moving in from Queensland which has experienced days of torrential downpours.

“We’ll experience a lot of storm activity for the next few days,” he said.

The city copped 49.2 millimetres of rain to 9pm and it was still falling steadily. More rain is forecast for today and tomorrow.