Be wet weather ready

With less than a month passing since we experienced significant flooding across the city that resulted in a Natural Disaster declaration, we appreciate that this weekend’s weather forecast may be concerning to some residents.

To support our community’s wet weather preparations, today we’re placing additional sand at four locations across the city that can be used to make sandbags.

The sand will be available from about 2pm at:

• Bellambi Boat Ramp Overflow carpark
• Fairy Meadow Beach carpark
• Fred Finch Park carpark
• Rex Jackson Oval in Helensburgh

Residents need to bring their own bags – supermarket “green” bags are a good alternative to hessian, and a shovel.

Council will monitor the sand supplies and the weather forecast over the coming days. Should there by additional deliveries these will be highlighted on our City of Wollongong Facebook page.

“While the volume of rain forecast over the coming days isn’t predicted to be the same level as what we experienced on 6 April, it’s still a significant amount of rain,’’ Wollongong City Lord Mayor Councillor Gordon Bradbery AM said.

“I know this might be concerning for some residents who experienced flooding recently or had flooding in their community.

“I encourage everyone to be mindful of others over the coming days and look out for one another.’’

In preparation for the rainfall, Council crews have been inspecting known flooding hotspots to ensure culverts and drains are clear of debris.

“This weather comes as we continue to clean up the city from last month’s flooding event,’’ Cr Bradbery said.

“We’ve prioritised our works according to risk and those locations, like some of our beaches where you might still see some debris, are lower risk than some of the city’s culverts.

“We will have teams on standby over the weekend to assist the SES and emergency services should the rainfall see road closures or other issues.’’

At this stage, Council’s sportsfields remain open. Our sportsfields webpage will be updated should there be any closures.