THERE is minor flooding around low-lying areas of Tuggerah Lake today, where the lake level is close to its peak.
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A severe weather warning remains current and there is the potential for very heavy rainfall on the Central Coast, the State Emergency Service (SES) said this morning.
At 9.15am today, Tuggerah Lake at Long Jetty was peaking near 1.5 metres with minor flooding.
At Toukley, the lake was at 1.57m and steady.
Water levels in the rivers feeding Tuggerah Lake are high.
At 9.30am today, Wyong River at Gears was at 6.64m and steady.
Jilliby Creek, at Jilliby, was at 4.38m and rising.
Around Lake Macquarie, low-lying areas have also been affected by minor flooding.
At 9am today, Dora Creek, at Cooranbong, was at 2.19m and falling.
Stockton Creek, at Morisset, was at 0.47m and steady.
Stoney Creek, at Toronto, was at 0.37m and steady.
Low-lying roads and bridges around Tuggerah Lake have been impacted, including:
- water over road at Geoffrey Road and Vesta Close, Chittaway Point;
- possible inundation of properties in Lake Edge Avenue, Berkeley Vale;
- possible water over road at south Tacoma Road, Tacoma South, near west Memorial Park;
- water over McDonough Road, near Lewis Avenue, Wyong;
- possible inundation of properties in Berkeley Vale, Chittaway Point, Long Jetty, Tacoma, Tacoma South and The Entrance North;
- Water over road at Wolseley Avenue, Tacoma.
The SES renewed its appeal for motorists not to drive into flood waters.
Train travel has also been impacted by the rain.
On the Central Coast and Newcastle Line, buses are operating a limited replacement service in some locations due to signal equipment and track damage.
MEANWHILE, the rainfall event has helped to blast some sand out of the clogged channel at The Entrance.
Over the weekend, locals were seen using shovels in the channel to give Mother Nature a hand.
The issue of dredging sand from The Entrance, and the creation of a breakwall in the channel, is scheduled to be raised at the postponed council meeting at Gosford on Wednesday night. (The meeting originally scheduled for Monday night was postponed due to the weather.)
Councillors Bruce McLachlan, Greg Best and Jilly Pilon have given notice that they will raise a motion which urges council to acknowledge "the ongoing resident dissatisfaction of the deteriorating condition of Tuggerah Lakes system and The Entrance channel, and the public outcry for a permanent solution".
The motion proposes that council lobby the state government for change, and that it allocate "sufficient funds in the 2020 budget to commence preliminary breakwall designs", with a view to submitting a proposal to the government.
The motion also calls on the council to allocate funding to start a major 2020 channel dredging program, and that consideration be given to using the dredged sand to create a "super bank surf break", similar to that in Greenmount/Kirra, Queensland.