Narrandera Shire Council Mayor Neville Kschenka was left “frustrated and heartbroken” as he witnessed the damage Narrandera sustained during the weekend storms.

On the edge of Narrandera as the storm broke, Cr Kschenka reached the centre of town as the weather event gathered momentum with lashing rain and strong gusts of wind.

“This event seemed to be isolated to Narrandera in a narrow strip and I contacted our deputy general manager to get as much information as I could and to see what we might be facing,” he said.

“Full credit to all of those involved for being on the scene to help very quickly.

“The following night (Saturday) I was doing some shopping and went out to my car and saw water coming up to the step of the shop very quickly – the amount of water we had was phenomenal and our drains just couldn’t handle it.

“It was frustrating and heartbreaking to see water entering shops and it was even more frustrating to see some people driving in 4WDs and washing water towards the shops and exacerbating the situation.”

Narrandera residents awoke on Sunday to discover the extent of the damage the town had endured during two severe storm fronts on Friday and Saturday.

“On Sunday the true scene was revealed – there was a lot of damage with so many houses around town being affected, but fortunately, not too many trees fell on buildings,” Cr Kschenka said.

“The volume of water was unprecedented – it came down so quickly our main stormwater drain just couldn’t handle it; the drain travels under East Street and comes along a lane through Marie Bashir Park.

“It will be top of the Council staff’s priority list to see where that water can be diverted to prevent something similar happening in the future.”

Cr Kschenka said Council staff were busy working throughout the town on Friday and Saturday in a bid to create a safer environment for residents after the carnage of the storms.

Council’s Deputy General Manager Infrastructure Shane Wilson described Friday’s storm as a “cyclonic event” which destroyed more than 100 trees in the town.

This was then followed on Saturday evening with a month of rain in about half an hour.

“Council staff worked across town on Friday and Saturday to remove fallen trees from roads and essential locations,” Mr Wilson said.

According to emergency workers on the scene Mr Wilson was also knee deep in water himself during the emergency operations under way in the town.

“We undertook traffic control and drain clearing and I worked to assist with clearing while coordinating crews,” Mr Wilson said.

“Everything happened so quickly that it was basically instantaneous – within four hours much of the water had gone.”

Mr Wilson said the two storm “events” which occurred within 24 hours, required different approaches to deal with the damage.

“We had a street sweeper cleaning East Street on Sunday morning but used contractors for clearing trees from Saturday and they should be finished by the end of this week,” he said.

“We’ve been undertaking infrastructure changes, but rain like that which we saw on Saturday is monsoonal and infrastructure to cater for such events is only designed for that in the tropics.

“Our rain events have changed, whether we like it or not. The plans we had for Bolton Street drainage works were already on hold and now we’ll be assessing how to ensure they can be engineered for the future,” Mr Wilson said.

This article appeared in the Narrandera Argus, 3 February 2022.