Monitor The
Your Community Newspaper ~ Roxby Downs
Volume 7, Wednesday, April 14th, 2010 www.themonitor.com.au Phone (08) 8671 2683
Fax (08) 8671 2843
Volume 7, Wednesday, April 14th, 2010
Flooded North Flooding rains ravage Roxby and Andamooka
T
By Millie Thomas
hursday, April 8th was a Thursday night much like any other, late night shopping and folk winding down for the week. And then it rained, and rained, and rained. Over a short distance of 60 kilometres from Olympic Dam Airport to Lake Mary, Andamooka and beyond rain gauging of 86 millimetres to 150 millimetres were reported, some long time residents saying it was the heaviest they had seen in 20 years a, while at Andamooka gaugings shattered a 40 year record. The roads were flooded, bitumen was lifted, caravan floating, parks underwater and the hub of the Roxby community, the local shopping mall was ravaged with a surge of water that couldn’t escape through the drains. According to a statement from BHP Billiton concerning the Olympic Dam mine "Minor flooding has occurred around the mine resulting in underground activities being temporarily suspended.” Unfortunately for some business owners within the Roxby mall, there was no chance to salvage much before the water rushed through shops. Kelly Spillman, owner and manager of Tandales Hair and Beauty, was on the receiving end of a lot of damage, namely to their floorboards and the foundations of their mirror stands, all of which, are wood. “The water seeped under the door and through the window pane seals while we still had clients,” said Kelly. “We will have to replace all of the floor boards, and the wood furniture is starting to bow. Luckily we had no stock on the floor, but the only thing the water didn’t reach was the kid’s corner and the GHD hair stylers,” she said. Luckily for Darren Pedler, owner of Desert Edge, Desert Décor and Mensland, his shops weren’t too badly affected. There was a bit of water damage to the floors, but once again, there was limited stock on the floor. Kat McKinnon of Autopro said the only reason they weren’t too badly affected was because of her family and friends. “Because of my wonderful family and friends, we didn’t sustain much damage. They were here within five minutes of the flooding with mops and towels…a special thanks to Sandy for all her help – she was supposed to be on annual leave.” Autopro only had damage to the packaging of some products, but no stock was lost. The veranda in front of their shop, couldn’t handle the velocity of the water, rendering the gutters almost useless. The SES had 11 call outs during the night, and one out to Andamooka in the early am of Friday, April 9. There was a lot of concern from the threat of flooding private properties and businesses and the SES helped with man power and provided sand bags. The mall drains were blocked by debris floating from the road and the sand dunes, and the SES also helped unblock this to send the water en route. Continued on page 18
More stories and pictures on pages 18 and 19
Above: The Myall Grove Caravan Park as it appeared on Friday. Above Right: A rain gauge measuring the mass of water. Photo: Rebecca Johnson Right: Residents of the Myall Grove Caravan Park stranded on their doorstep. Below: A number of roads were affected by the floods, this one, entering Andamooka was severly affected. Photo: Rebecca Johnson
Road swept away