Warragamba Dam, Sydney’s major water supply storage, situated 23 kilometres south of Penrith and 43 kilometres to Richmond and Windsor, will start to spill later this Saturday afternoon, once its capacity has reached over 100 percent, a Water NSW spokesman told Access News.
“We are expecting Warragamba Dam will start to spill sometime in the afternoon today [Saturday] as it exceeds to capacity and will likely cause flooding to some parts of Sydney and residents must check State Emergency Services (SES) for official warnings,” the spokesman said.
On Friday, Water NSW said Warragamba Dam’s capacity has reached 97.5 percent of the total Sydney metropolitan dam supply network at 94.6 percent.
At this water level, and with more than 90mm of rain continuously falling across the Warragamba catchment, there will be sufficient flow to push capacity above the dam’s storage level and trigger a spill, the spokesman said.
Water NSW has formed a 24-hour incident management team working closely with the SES and Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) to monitor weather and inflows to dams.
The public access road to Warragamba Dam on Crest Avenue and its viewing points has been closed to the public since Friday for safety precaution.
The shops and cafés at Warragamba village centre has closed their doors this afternoon and but will remain open from Sunday for the 1240 residents in the area if the bridge over Wallacia Weir that runs to Farnsworth Avenue will be closed off to traffic coming from Penrith, Parramatta and Liverpool.
Dam Break Café owner, Joann Inglis told Access News if the bridge over Wallacia weir goes under water, the only safe road to Warragamba would be a drive through The Oaks and Camden, in the southwest.
“People coming from Penrith, Parramatta and Liverpool going this way could drive the long way if they want to because the bridge to get here would be closed for days,” says Mrs Inglis.
“If this rain goes on for days and the dam spills, Menangle and Camden will be flooded first before Warragamba weir. Penrith normally don’t go under because the bridge is too high but North Richmond and Windsor including the ferries in Sackville would be affected.”
The Penrith SES has issued a warning on Saturday for “moderate to major flooding for the Colo, Hawkesbury and Nepean Rivers."
Penrith City Council has closed several roads due to flooding: Stony Creek Road and St Marys Road at Berkshire Park; Reynolds Road in Londonderry; and Carrington Road Bridge and Rickabys Creek in Londonderry.
Hawkesbury SES has issued a warning that water level is predicted to reach 5.8 metres at Hawkesbury River in Windsor.
The SES said the following areas low-lying area will be impacted by dangerous floodwater: Cattai Creek and Longneck Creek in Cattai, farmlands along Wilberforce Road, Burdekin Road and south of Kings Road in Wilberforce; Gronos Point area; Richmond Lowlands and Agnes Banks Lowlands; Pitt Town Road at Mckenzies Creek; Pitt Town Bottoms Road.
The SES advised Hawkesbury residents to check www.livetraffic.com
for further notice concerning Windsor Bridge which may be closed to traffic if flood water further rises this weekend.
For emergency assistance, call SES on 132 500.
