WITH less than a month passing since significant flooding caused mayhem across the Illawarra that resulted in a Natural Disaster declaration, residents are reminded to be ‘wet weather ready’ this weekend.

A sustained rain event is intensifying across NSW, raising the risk of flooding around Sydney and the Illawarra this weekend.

To support the community’s wet weather preparations, Wollongong City Council is providing sand for bagging at four locations across the city. The sand will be available from Friday May 4 at:

• Bellambi Boat Ramp Overflow carpark
• Fairy Meadow Beach carpark
• Rex Jackson Oval, Helensburgh
• Fred Finch Park carpark

Residents need to bring their own bags – supermarket “green” bags are a good alternative to hessian, and a shovel.

Council will monitor the sand supplies and the weather forecast over the coming days. Should there by additional deliveries these will be highlighted on the City of Wollongong Facebook page.

Wollongong Lord Mayor Gordon Bradbery said while the volume of rain forecast over the coming days isn’t predicted to be the same level as what was experienced on 6 April, it’s still a significant amount of rain.

“I know this might be concerning for some residents who experienced flooding recently or had flooding in their community,” Cr Bradbery said.

“I encourage everyone to be mindful of others over the coming days and look out for one another.”

In preparation for the rainfall, Council crews have been inspecting known flooding hotspots to ensure culverts and drains are clear of debris.

“This weather comes as we continue to clean up the city from last month’s flooding event,” Cr Bradbery said.

“We’ve prioritised our works according to risk and those locations, like some of our beaches where you might still see some debris, are lower risk than some of the city’s culverts.

“We will have teams on standby over the weekend to assist the SES and emergency services should the rainfall see road closures or other issues.”

At this stage, Council’s sportsfields remain open. Council’s sportsfields webpage will be updated should there be any closures.

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