It was a dramatic start to the New Year in some pockets of the shire yesterday afternoon (Monday) when a violent storm cut a devastating path across the landscape.
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Branches were ripped from trees and tiles tossed from rooves as huge, cruelly-shaped hailstones and heavy rain pummelled down.
At Eungai Creek residents reported 548mm filling rain gauges in less than an hour and hail stones the size of golf balls.
People took to the Nambucca Guardian Facebook page to share their videos – see them all here.
Gillian Baker shared this comment and video:
Hyland Park resident Bekki Unwin said the intensity of the storm was scary.
“It battered the house, the garden and our cars … I haven’t seen a storm that violent before,” Bekki said.
Others rejoiced at what appeared, briefly, to be a White Christmas.
Nambucca SES Unit Controller Peter Shales said calls started coming in at about 2pm, the first being a branch that had pierced the tile on a roof at Marshall Way.
“We had quite a few hail damage jobs – at Valla Beach and Nambucca the hail broke skylights,” Peter said.
“There were also a few chainsaw jobs with trees blocking access to properties, which we passed on to the RFS.
“We also alerted the RMS to trees across the highway at Eungai and Warrell Creeks, causing blockages at four different spots.”
He said it had been a pretty wild period for the SES ever since Christmas Eve.
“We’ve had 46 jobs so far due to the storms – the first one came in at 10pm on Christmas Eve and we’ve been busy ever since.”
He was looking forward to some quieter times ahead … at the end of this week.
For now there is an alert out for more stormy weather this afternoon.