COAST COMMUNITY tVheoicneorofth 22 JULY 2020
ISSUE 198
REAL INDEPENDENT LOCAL WEEKLY NEWS
Coast reels from wild weather
News
Transport for NSW has confirmed that it has met only 13 percent of its biodiversity offset requirements. See page 9
Out&About
Ominous storm clouds and heavy rain moving in over Long Jetty
Wild weather lashed the north of the Central Coast on July 12, with heavy rain, thunder and lightning putting on a sky show and hail carpeting Gwandalan like snow. The Bureau of Meteorology and State Emergency Services started putting out warnings to batten down the hatches a few days before the storm swept through. Deputy Unit Commander of Wyong State Emergency Service, Sue Robson, said that they were called to 27 jobs over the three-day storm period.
“It wasn’t quite as bad as expected because it wasn’t the East Coast Low everyone thought it was going to be, instead it was a low-pressure system, but it still brought some heavy weather,” Robson said. The low-pressure system brought damaging winds, big tides and heavy seas with winds averaging 60 to 70km/h and peak gusts in excess of 90km/h while the powerful seas started scouring out the already unstable sand dunes along The Entrance North Beach.
Marlene and Gerry Pennings have lost about 4m of their backyard, but they say they are still quite stable as their house is a further 7m back. “Our house is over 100 years old, so we are a bit different to some of the newer homes which have much deeper foundations,” Marlene said. “Council is doing everything they can, they have been very supportive and the beach crew is very helpful, getting as much done as they can by moving sand to shore up the banks and sometimes working up to one o’clock in the morning.
“The engineering staff have been out to check us and we’re safe, but we’ll be keeping an eye on those big tides coming in over the next couple of days,” Marlene said. Paul Green and his wife have lived at The Entrance North for the past 16 years and he says this beach erosion is definitely the worst that most people along the beachfront have seen. “We’ve lost 10m of our land, and we’ve got about another 10m left,” Green said. “I’m feeling pretty anxious and a little frustrated.
Photo: Justin Stanley
“We wanted permission to do something along the beach to shore up the sand dunes but obviously we weren’t getting enough council and state government support, everything just takes too long. “We wanted to put down geosandbags or sandstone, something that’s safe for people, and we weren’t looking for a handout, but knew that something had to be done sooner than later or we could very well finish up like Wamberal is now.
High seas slowly but surely demolishing the sand dune at North Entrance beach Photo: Klayte McSweeny, Photoslog
Residents now have assurance that council will not take regulatory action for emergency work carried out, but only at Wamberal and The Entrance North, and the work has to have been designed and approved by a qualified coastal
See page 15
Health
Continued page 8
The Glen Drug and Alcohol Rehabilitation Centre continues to work towards getting The Glen for Women up and running at Wyong Creek.
Residents allowed to do emergency work to protect storm affected properties Beachfront residents at The Entrance North and Wamberal have been given direction on what emergency work they can do in the wake of the beach erosion caused by a low pressure system bringing wild weather and heavy seas which hit their sand dunes.
The Wyong District Garden Competition is back for its 47th instalment and entries are now open.
engineer. The works also need to be certified as not likely to have significant adverse impacts on other land and the work is only that which is reasonably required to protect the property. The time frame for the works is limited to four weeks. The decisions were made at July 20’s extraordinary council meeting called to update the community and councillors on the coastal erosion impact resulting from a low pressure system that stretched from Merimbula to Port Stephens. Continued page 4
See page 23
Sport
After a long wait, the Central Coast Rugby Union season finally kicked off on July 18, with Ourimbah and The Lakes off to a flying start. See page 31
Puzzles page 19
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