Prepare for Illawarra storm season | September 9, 2024 | Illawarra Mercury
WATCH: SES Chief Superintendent Tom Jory urging Illawarra residents to prepare for storm season on September 9, 2024. Video by Adam McLean, Elizabeth Falconer
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00:00Over the last couple of weeks we've seen a pretty significant sequence of storm fronts
00:05come through.
00:06So we've seen around 1,200 individual incidents.
00:11Once again the focus there was in the Illawarra and in the Highlands.
00:15Be proactive and prepare their homes and so we're thinking things like make sure their
00:20roofs are in good repair, make sure they clean their gutters, particularly after an event
00:24because sticks and leaves get caught in the gutters during the event and the next one
00:27comes through and it's much worse.
00:29We're also asking people to have a plan in case they need to leave their home for any
00:33reason at short notice.
00:35When we see intense rainfall and we definitely see more intensity or greater intensity in
00:41places around the escarpment and the Illawarra compared to the broader region is where we
00:47see an intensification of that rainfall.
00:49So that's certainly something to be aware of throughout the season is that those places
00:54can see heavy rainfall that leads to flash flooding with very short notice lead time.
00:59That's why we ask people to be prepared all of the time and be ready to go all of the
01:03time because there are instances where we'll see that rainfall that potentially may not
01:08have been forecast to be as severe and people will have to act very quickly in response
01:13to their own circumstances to get themselves safe.