Despite seemingly dodging a bullet in the form of the worst of the winds and rain from ex-tropical cyclone Alfred, the Lower Clarence was in the crosshairs of a major flood after large volumes of rain fell in the catchment.

From Thursday, winds and rain lashed the Lower Clarence, causing minor flash flooding and uprooting trees around Yamba. Many small businesses were closed, preparing for the worst, and facing an uncertain period of not trading, which was reportedly frustrating many owners.

Panic buying hit Coles Yamba with shortages of bread, milk, meat, eggs, fruit and vegetables and other products seeing supermarket shelves stripped bare.

People awoke in Yamba on Friday morning to discover powerlines down across River Street, near Yamba Golf and Country Club, causing a power outage.

Water covered the recently upgraded Shores Drive, Yamba, causing minor traffic issues.

Motorists using Iluka Road reported a large tree had come down.

A large gum tree fell on a home in Park Avenue, Yamba, on Friday morning, attracting attention on Higgins Storm Chasing’s Facebook page.

Yamba resident Bob Cairns told the CV Independent Yamba was very lucky that the cyclone impacts that were predicted didn’t eventuate.

The retired flood mitigation engineer said Yamba had dodged a bullet, and he would rather be warned a dozen times and be prepared, than have one time when he wasn’t warned.

“The events to date have had far less effect on the town, so far, than the 2022 storm and flood did,” he said.

“I checked the river heights on the Bureau of Meteorology website and from past experience, as far as I can see, there’s nothing really big coming, unless we get more rain.

“Other than getting in and out of town, there’s only been minor impacts in the town itself.

“On the nights when the cyclone was approaching the coast it was windy, it was howling a gale and the rain was virtually horizontal, but even with the total rainfall we got here, we’ve had much more rain locally with offshore low-pressure systems.”

Mr Cairns said the panic buying by Yamba residents was clearly evident at Coles.

“The problem is, as soon as anyone mentions the word cyclone, or potential flooding anywhere, everything goes from the supermarkets,” he said.

“You couldn’t get milk, or bread, or eggs, or meat, and there wasn’t much fresh produce at Coles, we ended up shopping at Spar, because they were well stocked after the caravaners at Calypso Caravan Park were advised to leave.”

When Alfred stalled, performing two pirouettes on consecutive days as at it approached the coast last week, this limited the impact on Yamba from the predicted high tides forecast.

“I think we also dodged a bullet, because if we got an east coast low and a king tide again, like in 2022, who knows what could have happened,” Mr Cairns said.

“Fortunately, the tides at Yamba weren’t that high over the past few days, the highest it’s been for days was on Monday at 1.58 metres, so we’re very lucky that they are very low high tides.”

While the weather wasn’t as severe as first predicted in the Lower Clarence, the upper catchment of the mighty Clarence River was hit by huge rain bombs over several days, resulting in river levels rising rapidly.

Coles Yamba shelves were replenished on Monday, as two delivery trucks were able to get through before road closures.

Yamba Road, west of Palmers Channel near the Palmers Channel Southbank Road intersection was cut by floodwater on the morning of Monday, March 10, where frustratingly the Council flood camera was not working, and remained closed when the CV Independent went to print.

See more flood stories and photos in the issue.
This article appeared in the Clarence Valley Independent, 12 March 2025.