Severe weather warning in NSW, Queensland with heavy rain, coastal erosion will hit

More storms are expected to wash over a 1000km stretch of Australia’s east coast, with a combination of high tides and severe weather warnings as residents scramble to protect properties.

The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) has issued dangerous weather advisories for northeast New South Wales and southeast Queensland as the areas continue to be battered by wild storms that are causing significant coastal erosion.

It comes after Byron Bay’s main beach was “swallowed” by some observers, and the local mayor warned that it had almost “disappeared”.

Residents have been told to expect “damaging winds and heavy rain” in Queensland, while NSW fared no better, and the bill of materials indicates that “dangerous rain and coastal erosion” are expected to worsen in affected areas. .

A spokeswoman said there will be more rain, wind and waves Tuesday morning, but said conditions will improve “at some point.”

“The expectation right now is later in the day. But certainly, [Tuesday] tomorrow we would be expecting an increase in rain, wind and waves. It looks like the swell is going to last a bit longer now. “

The Queensland branch of the BOM issued a flood watch and severe weather advisory from Fraser Island to the Queensland-New South Wales border, warning of rising river levels and minor flooding.

“The catchment areas of the Logan River, Albert and the South Shore are now saturated with the renewed increases in river level that are expected from the anticipated rainfall,” he said. “Storms are expected throughout the flood watch area on Monday and Tuesday.”

In New South Wales heavy rains were expected to intensify Monday night before subsiding on Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning.

Heavy rains are expected on the north coast along with thunderstorms, flash floods, damaging winds and swells and abnormally high tides that could lead to “significant” beach erosion north of the Ballina area, the BOM said.

BYRON’S MAIN BEACH ‘SWALLOWED’

The coast has been hit by hurricane force winds and extremely high tides in recent days, prompting more than 900 requests for assistance over the course of the wild weather event. Karlene York from SES said that “most of the jobs we are helping with are fallen trees, leaky roofs and windows.”

As areas brace for another day of up to 104km / h winds that hit Cape Byron Monday morning, social media has been filled with images of damage inflicted in the 1000km danger zone.

Byron Bay saw 6m waves and abnormally high tides. Byron Shire Mayor Simon Richardson told Sky News that he hopes the main beach can recover.

“It is a beach that we all appreciate very much,” he said. “We’ve had quite a few erosion events leading to this before and obviously we’ll have another big king tide tomorrow and more twisted weather so hopefully we all close the hatches and so does this particular area and when the water recedes the beach can start to recover. “

Richardson called on locals and tourists to be responsible and stay safe by not driving on flooded roads.

“Along the coast the waves have been huge, we look at waves up to five meters, we have big swells, crazy water, we also have real tides and really high water levels breaking along the entire coast,” he said. said.

Queensland Police shared photos of a “serious landslide” on Mount Tamborine that showed huge rocks that had closed off Tamborine Mountain Rd, known locally as the Goat Trail.

“That’s a big rock,” read one post, showing a police officer standing next to a giant rock.

A jaw-dropping video of First Bay Coolum’s generally pristine beach completely encased in thick mountains of cloudy white foam also wowed social media, showing the white, foamy substance teetering on the water after brutal weather.

Sunshine Coast Daily shared a video of the water rising over a spillway at the Wappa Dam, which was currently at nearly 110% capacity and more rain was expected.

Thousands of people were without power in many areas, and police closed roads as debris fell from buildings and trees.