Unprecedented Rainfall and Major Flooding Around the World

[angelburst29]

Storm Ciara to hit Britain and northern continental Europe and storm Sabine which is expected to hit parts of Europe with force winds and rain.

Storm Ciara lashed Britain and northern continental Europe with heavy rain and wind speeds that reached more than 90 miles an hour (145 kph) in places on Sunday, forcing the cancellation of hundreds of flights, train services and sports matches.

Flights axed and floods feared as Storm Ciara clobbers Europe Feb. 9, 2020


Storm Ciara batters Britain, hitting flights, trains and soccer

Storm Ciara disrupts more than 200 flights at Amsterdam's Schiphol
Around 240 flights to and from Amsterdam's Schiphol airport, one of Europe's busiest, were canceled on Sunday as a powerful storm blew in off the Atlantic Ocean with wind gusts of up to 120 km per hour (74 mph).

Lufthansa warns of flight cancellations ahead of storm Sabine

German airline Lufthansa said that storm Sabine, which is expected to hit parts of Europe over the weekend with gale-force winds, will lead to flight cancellations and delays.

 

[angelburst29]

Storm Ciara disrupts more than 200 flights at Amsterdam's Schiphol

Storm Ciara may have disrupted flights in parts of Europe but a flight from New York to London broke a record in travel time.

Storm Ciara fast-tracks plane flying from JFK to Heathrow in under 5 hours, breaks record Feb. 10, 2020
https://www.accuweather.com/en/weat...eathrow-in-under-5-hours-breaks-record/677829

Typically storms delay flights, and Storm Ciara was no different, but a passenger plane traveling from New York City's John F. Kennedy International Airport to London made the trip in 4 hours and 56 minutes by riding a jet stream that was accelerated by the storm.

The plane, a Boeing 747, was scheduled to arrive at 6:25 a.m. local time Sunday, but it landed at the London Heathrow Airport almost two hours earlier than scheduled at 4:43 a.m.

This British Airways flight is now the fastest subsonic New York to London crossing, beating the previous record set by a Norwegian Airlines jet at 5 hours and 13 minutes, according to Flightradar24, an online flight-tracking service.

The average flight time of this path from New York to London, according to Flightradar24, is 6 hours and 13 minutes.

"A strong jet stream over the northeast Atlantic Ocean helped to increase tailwinds at flight level, which helped to push the plane along on its flight," AccuWeather Meteorologist Maura Kelly said.

The jet stream helped the plane reach speeds of 825 mph (1,327 km/h, the BBC reports.

"This strong jet stream played a part in strengthening Storm Ciara as it tracked across the Atlantic Ocean," Kelly said.

The weather may have played a part in another Boeing 747 plane's hard landing?

Boeing plane makes hard landing in northwest Russia, all 94 on board safe February 9, 2020
A Boeing 737 airliner with 94 people on board made a hard landing in northwestern Russia on Sunday, carrier UTair said, but no one was badly hurt.

It said the airliner, arriving at Usinsk airport in the Komi Republic about 1,500 kilometers (932 miles) from Moscow, made the hard landing because of wind shear - a sudden change of wind velocity and/or direction.

The plane’s main landing gear was damaged in the landing but the crew managed to bring the aircraft to a halt on the runway, UTair said in a statement. All passengers and crew safely left the airliner.

Pictures posted on the websites of the regional government and emergency situations ministry showed the airliner lying flat on its belly on a runway covered partly with snow.


Heavy rains bring both relief and new dangers to bushfire-hit Australia

A four-day downpour across Australia's east coast has brought relief after months of devastating bushfires and years of drought, but also widespread storm damage and forecasts of more wild weather to come.

 

[angelburst29]

An unfortunate tragedy - so hard to read about incidences like this ...

At least six Indonesian students killed when swept away by river tides

Rescue workers walk past a bridge as they search for students who were missing after a tidal surge swept them away during a school trip, in Sleman, Yogyakarta, Indonesia, February 21, 2020

Feb. 21, 2020 - At least six students in the Indonesian province of Yogyakarta were killed and five more were missing on Friday after a tidal surge swept them away during a school trip, said disaster mitigation officials.

About 250 high school students were walking along a river when high waters pulled them in, drowning them.

“Students were doing scout activities around the Sempor river,” Agus Wibowo, spokesman at the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB), said in a statement on Friday. At least six were killed and six others sustained light injuries, he said.

Biwara Yuswantana, the head of the Yogyakarta disaster mitigation agency, told Reuters that at least five students were still missing.

Wibowo said it was not raining when the students came down to the river but as they walked around it “huge waves came upstream”.

He added that joint forces of the police, the search and rescue agency and the military had been dispatched to assist in search and rescue.

 

[Chad]

Whilst looking for records of the average weather in regions online, i checked out a few places, primarily those i am familiar with, and what i came across really surprised me.

Perhaps i'm reading the graphs wrong but it would appear that in the last 2 years, since the end of 2018?, average rainfalls are soaring.

The website i'm using is: World Weather Online

The first example is Freckleton, UK; the second is Moissac, France; the third is Porto Alegre, Brazil - i just added the last one because i recently read an article about record drought in the region of Rio Grande Do Sul and so i wanted to see whether this also fit the pattern i think i'm seeing:

I'm familiar with the idea that with solar minimum cloud nucleation is expected to increase due to increased cosmic rays; that flooding has indeed been in the increase; that atmospheric rivers were predicted increase too; plus we've even seen the 'sheets of rain' the C's had talked about, and so on, but I guess even with all that in mind it struck me with the graphs above just how dramatic the shift seems to have been, and in just a few years??

One other thing, because, admittedly, i'm not very good at reading charts and the like, but it appears that although the number of days of rain hasn't changed as dramatically, the amount of rain has (except for maybe Freckleton, UK)? Which supports the atmospheric river theory. This is interesting because at the same time, during the summer, the UK appears to be seeing droughts (and wildfires) like never before.

Well, maybe those of you who are good at this sort of thing can chime in :) And also just to share with you what i think i came across.

 

[Niall]

That looks to me like you're seeing what it looks like you're seeing!

Sheets of rain, everywhere, in the last couple of years.

I've attached graphs for some more locations.

One drawback is that it's limited to just the last decade.

But a doubling of rainfall levels seems to be confirmed by studies:

Flooding and heavy rains rise 50% worldwide in a decade, figures show
The Guardian, 21 Mar 2018

Global floods and extreme rainfall events have surged by more than 50% this decade, and are now occurring at a rate four times higher than in 1980, according to a new report.

Other extreme climatological events such as storms, droughts and heatwaves have increased by more than a third this decade and are being recorded twice as frequently as in 1980, the paper by the European Academies’ Science Advisory Council (Easac) says.

The paper, based partly on figures compiled by the German insurance company Munich Re, also shows that climate-related loss and damage events have risen by 92% since 2010.

The Guardian write-up of it goes on:

"Some of the underlying drivers of extreme weather which were speculative four years ago are now looking less speculative and [more like] credible hypotheses. That is the weakening of the Gulf Stream and the meandering behaviour of the jet stream."

The Easac study, Extreme weather events in Europe: Preparing for climate change adaptation, looked at new data and models focused on a potential slowdown of the Atlantic Gulf Stream, due to an influx of freshwater from melted ice sheets in Greenland.

It was compiled by experts from 27 national science academies in the EU, Norway and Switzerland, although the data was not peer-reviewed.

The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has assessed the probability of a slowdown before 2100 at more than 90% - or “very likely”. However, a complete “switch off of the gulf stream – or Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) – is increasingly thought possible by some scientists.

Some studies say this could lower land temperatures in the UK, Greenland, Iceland and Scandinavia by up to 9C.

UK arrays positioned in the north Atlantic measured a 30% drop in AMOC strength between 2009-10, the Easac study says. And while uncertainties persist about the pace and scale of possible future changes, the decline in Gulf Stream strength itself has now been “confirmed”.

Not one mention of what this MEANS: an ICE AGE!!!

 

[Palinurus]

Source: Trail of destruction as Lake Victoria waters flood homes : The Standard

Home / Kenya / Nyanza
Trail of destruction as Lake Victoria waters flood homes

Harold Odhiambo - 23rd Apr 2020 10:03:08 GMT +0300

Business premises at Dunga Beach in Kisumu are flooded after Lake Victoria water levels continued to rise
and spilled past the shores [Denish Ochieng, Standard]


Five years ago, scientists warned about the rising water levels of Lake Victoria, but many people did not take them seriously. Just a few anticipated to live to see this depth of devastation.

It has always been business as usual as investors, residents and other traders scrambled to set up businesses around the lucrative shores of Lake Victoria. Prices of parcels of land around the lake have soared with crops planted in large swathes of adjacent land as residents continued to make a living from the natural resource.

And with no warning, many of those human activities are now submerged in water. Thousands are staring at huge losses as swelling waters continue to displace homes and businesses. Crops, too, have been destroyed and all leisure activities along the shores brought to an abrupt end.

So dire is the situation that several towns and mushrooming trade centers along the lake, including parts of Kisumu City, are facing a threat of being destroyed. Experts and villagers claim their current situation was last witnessed 57 years ago when similar swelling in 1963 destroyed villages.

Raging floods, which have left trails of destruction and swept away villages, has only worsened and is slowly turning into a calamity. Several beaches, fish-landing sites, sporting facilities and luxurious homes have been submerged as water levels continue to rise.

The situation has also brought a fresh human-wildlife conflict as the swelling waters destroyed breeding and feeding zones of hippos, which are now forced out to feed in broad daylight just next to homes.

In the last two weeks, officials from Kenya Wildlife Service have killed three hippos in Kisumu after straying into residential areas and threatening the lives of several people.

Loss of business

A spot check by The Standard across several beaches in the affected region found several of the beaches have been rendered inaccessible by the swelling waters.

Only Dunga beach is still standing strong despite the waters submerging several hotels and forcing traders to move up to higher grounds.

Hopes of turning the beach into a landmark fish-eating zone in Kisumu has now gone down the drain with the swollen lake barring tourists from accessing the hotels.

A fish market constructed by the county government of Kisumu to promote trade is inaccessible after it was waterlogged. Yesterday, a group of fishmongers were wading through the waters after collecting fish from a boat.

Joan Achieng, a hotelier, claimed the waters has robbed her of her hotel and forced her to close it down and turn her attention to fish-hawking to eke a living.

“We are all living in fear because the water levels keep rising every day. It is worse in the afternoons when there are strong tides,” said Achieng.

She is among the business people who moved to the beach a few months ago after their hotels at the Lwang’ni beach were brought down by county authorities.

A few meters from where Achieng’s hotel stands, other hoteliers are counting losses after spending a fortune to set up new fish eating structures, which are now in water.

Several high-end hotels including golf clubs have also been affected by the rising water levels. At the Nyanza Golf Club, water flowing from the lake has submerged part of the course.

Although the club is currently closed as a result of Covid-19, golfers will have to shop elsewhere to tee, whenever the health situation improves, as the green is submerge.

Yesterday, Christopher Aura, a scientist with the Kenya Maritime Fisheries Institute told The Standard that climate change was the reason behind the swelling waters.

“The waters of Lake Victoria are swelling as a result of climate change. Several rivers are also having levels of water that is draining into the lake,” said Aura.

The researcher said they are yet to conduct a study on the lake but compared the current rising water levels to another study conducted on Lake Naivasha, which experienced a similar problem.

Crops destroyed

The swelling waters have affected almost the entire Nyanza region in areas adjacent to the lake with homes submerged and farm lands destroyed.

The worst affected, however, is Nyando region where several villages have been submerged. They include Nduru, Kadidi and Kamira villages while in Kisumu city, several families have been displaced in Dunga and Nyalenda areas.

Joseph Auko, an elder, who was displaced from his home for the first time since 1963, claimed the situation has destroyed his life.

“It is not clear whether the lake waters will subside so that we can go back to our homes, but we are optimistic nature will have mercy on us,” said Auko.

Yesterday, he was among the families that were affected by floods that has now compounded problems for those displaced by the lake.

Scientists, however, paint a gloomy picture on the situation and expect it to worsen because of the pounding rains.

Similar coverage:
Lake Victoria waters reach alarming levels
Rising Victoria water levels is dire warning
Five dead, houses on Lake Victoria beaches submerged
Rising Lake Victoria waters displace hundreds of families

 

[angelburst29]

Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan have evacuated tens of thousands of people from the Syr Darya river basin after a reservoir dam on the Uzbek side burst, flooding large areas on both sides of the border, the authorities said on Saturday.

Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan evacuate thousands over flood
May 2, 2020 - Uzbekistan has evacuated about 70,000 people from 22 villages in the affected area following the May 1 burst, the Tashkent government said.

In Kazakhstan, the authorities have evacuated about 5,400 people from four villages in the southern Turkestan province, governor Umirzak Shukeyev said, adding that some people had left the area overnight on their own.

The Uzbek government said it had managed to reduce the flow of water and divert it to a nearby lake.

Flooding forces 70,000 on Kazakhstan-Uzbekistan border to flee - New York Times Post

 

[angelburst29]

MIDLAND, MICHIGAN - Rising floodwaters unleashed by two dam failures submerged parts of the central Michigan town of Midland on Wednesday (May 20), displacing thousands of residents and threatening to inundate a Dow Chemical Co plant in the riverfront city.

Michigan flooding forces thousands to flee, threatens chemical plant

Residents explore what remains of the West Curtis Road bridge which was swept away following extreme flooding throughout central Michigan on May 20, 2020.PHOTO: AFP

By late morning, floodwaters had reached the grounds of the Dow facility and were confirmed to be "comingling with on-site containment ponds", the company said in a statement, adding no employees had been hurt.

The National Weather Service (NWS) warned of "life-threatening" flooding as water levels of the Tittabawassee River in Midland, about193km north-west of Detroit, rose to historic levels.

About 10,000 people have been evacuated in Midland County, Ms Whitmer said, after days of heavy rain caused a swollen river to overflow its banks and breach the Edenville and Sanford dams.

"Experts are describing this as a 500-year event," Ms Whitmer told a news conference after a tour of the stricken areas.

FEMA AND MILITARY
A spokeswoman for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said that as soon as it is safe, engineers will be sent to both dams to assist state and other authorities in an investigation into the cause of the breaches.

Video posted on social media showed high water lapping around buildings in downtown Midland, partly submerging bridges and roads.

Dow Chemical, which is headquartered in Midland, said in a statement it was implementing its flood-preparedness plan.

All operating units, except for facilities needed for managing chemical containment, have been shut down, the company said in a statement, adding essential staff was on the scene to monitor and manage the situation.


Hundreds of thousands evacuated as India, Bangladesh brace for super cyclone
KOLKATA, INDIA/DHAKA – India and Bangladesh evacuated around half a million people out of the way of the most powerful storm in a decade ahead of its landfall on Wednesday (May 20) amid fears of heavy damage to houses and crops and disruption of road, rail and power links.

The authorities’ task to save lives was complicated by ongoing efforts to curb the coronavirus pandemic and enforce social distancing to avoid a surge of infections. Many thousands of migrant workers are on the roads trying to get home from big cities after a nationwide lockdown destroyed their livelihoods.

Approaching from the Bay of Bengal, super cyclone Amphan was expected to hit the coast of eastern India and southern Bangladesh with winds gusting up to 185kmh – the equivalent of a category 5 hurricane.

The Indian weather department forecast a storm surge of 3m to 5m waves – as high as a two-storey house – that could swamp mud dwellings along the coast, uproot communication towers and inundate roads and rail tracks.

There will be extensive damage to standing crops and plantations in the states of West Bengal and Odisha while large boats and ships could get torn from their moorings, the weather service said in a bulletin late on Tuesday.


Millions set to flee as storm heads to India, Bangladesh
NEW DELHI • The biggest cyclonic storm over the Bay of Bengal in about two decades has slightly weakened, ahead of hitting the coasts of India and Bangladesh today, with the authorities making preparations to evacuate more than five million people to safer places.

Cyclone Amphan, equivalent to a Category 4 hurricane at present, is expected to have a sustained wind speed of 200kmh to 210kmh, according to the India Meteorological Department. The speed may rise to as high as 240kmh, it said.

Bangladesh is evacuating 2.2 million people from the coastal districts, State Minister for Disaster Management Enamur Rahman said at a media briefing in Dhaka.

The country also plans to raise the danger signal to the maximum level at 6am today and it will be impossible to evacuate people after the "great danger signal" is announced, he said.

The storm will be intense enough to damage crops, plantations, trees, mud houses and communication and electric poles, as well as disrupt road traffic and transportation of essential goods.

Large boats and ships may be torn from their moorings, according to the country's meteorological department.

The storm threatens the lives of people and animals as the wind speed is likely to be as high as 185kmh during its landfall.


Cyclone Amphan kills at least 82 in India, Bangladesh, causes widespread flood

The full extent of the casualties and damage to property will only be known once communications are restored.
Published 5 hours ago Updated 15 min ago Facebook147 WhatsApp Twitter


May 21, 2020 - KOLKATA/DHAKA - The most powerful cyclone to strike eastern India and Bangladesh in over a decade killed at least 82 people, officials said, as rescue teams scoured devastated coastal villages, hampered by torn down power lines and flooding over large tracts of land.

In the Indian state of West Bengal, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said on Thursday (May 21) that at least 72 people had perished - most of them either electrocuted or killed by trees uprooted by winds that gusted up to 185 km per hour. In neighbouring Bangladesh, the initial toll was put at 10.

In Pictures: Cyclone Amphan batters India and Bangladesh
The powerful storm uprooted trees and destroyed homes, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake.

 

[Chad]

Pretty crazy video of a landslide in Norway that apparently happened just today:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1268270255509512193

 

[angelburst29]

KYIV - Torrential rains in Ukraine have killed three people, forced hundreds from their homes and cut off villages in western regions, authorities said on Wednesday.

Three die, hundreds evacuated in Ukraine flooding


An aerial view shows flooded residential buildings in Ivano-Frankivsk region, Ukraine, June 24, 2020. (Reuters Photo)


June 24, 2020 - While many were trying to guard their property, about 800 people had been evacuated since the rains began on Monday, said Interior Minister Arsen Avakov who was visiting the disaster zone with Prime Minister Denys Shmygal.

About 5,000 houses in 187 villages remained flooded as of Wednesday morning, according to an emergency service report.

Footage from a regional administration and on social media showed raging mountain rivers, a partially-submerged village, and fields and roads covered by water.

Calling it the most powerful flooding in many years, the interior ministry said in a statement that four helicopters, one airplane and 150 soldiers had been sent to the zone.

3 dead, hundreds homeless after flood hits Ukraine
June 24, 2020 - The worst-hit region is Ivano-Frankivsk on the Romanian border.

Around 70% of monthly rainfall in some regions fell over several days, said Interior Minister Arsen Avakov, who flew to the disaster zone with the prime minister and the head of emergency services.

More than 100 kilometers (61.2 miles) of road and around 90 bridges have been destroyed, the Interior Ministry said Wednesday.

Authorities are beginning deliveries of food by helicopter to villages cut off by the floodwaters.

It is the biggest flood since 2008 when 39 people were killed in western Ukraine.

Some experts blame large-scale and often illegal logging operations in the Carpathian mountains for stripping trees that would normally help contain the run-off.

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Rescuers ride inside amphibious vehicle through flooded residential area in Chernivtsi region, Ukraine, in this handout picture released by Ukrainian State Emergency Service on June 24, 2020. State Emergency Service of Ukraine in Chernivtsi region/Handout via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY.

Serbia and Bosnia hit by heavy rain, flooding
BELGRADE/SARAJEVO June 24, 2020 - Torrential rain and flooding in Serbia and Bosnia forced authorities to declare a state of emergency on Tuesday, as swollen rivers damaged bridges, roads and power lines.

Serbia, which is also battling a rising number of coronavirus cases, declared an emergency situation in nine municipalities in the country's west and southwest.

In the city of Kraljevo, the Ibar river tore two floating restaurants from their moorings, smashing them against a bridge.

"The city ... declared an emergency situation ... all Civil Defense units have been deployed," the Tanjug news agency quoted Kraljevo mayor Predrag Terzic as saying.

In other places, smaller rivers burst their banks, cutting off roads and power lines.

"Members of the Department for Emergency Situations ... are providing assistance to the population and evacuating," the Interior Ministry said in a statement.

 

[angelburst29]

Police among 18 feared killed in landslide at Myanmar jade mine
YANGON July 28, 2019 - A landslide at a Myanmar jade mine killed 14 people including at least one policemen in the early hours of Sunday as earth and mud engulfed a guard post, and four people were missing and feared dead, police said.

Almost a year apart, another mud slide and Jade mine collapse with death and destruction.

Death toll rises to 162 in Myanmar jade mine collapse

The death toll in a landslide at a jade mine in northern Myanmar has risen to at least 162, with more feared dead, authorities said.

A heap of mining waste collapsed into a lake on Thursday and buried many workers under mud and water.

By late evening on Thursday, rescue workers had recovered 162 bodies, the fire service department said, but the search was ongoing.

 

[treesparrow]

Video of the Myanmar landslide in the above post:

 

[angelburst29]

JAKARTA July 15, 2020 - Flash floods and landslides have killed at least 16 people and displaced hundreds in a district on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, officials at the country's disaster mitigation agency said on Wednesday.

https://www.usnews.com/news/world/a...ll-at-least-16-displace-hundreds-in-indonesia

Officers evacuate victims in Radda Village, following flash floods that left several dead and dozens remain missing, in North Luwu in Sulawesi, Indonesia July 14, 2020.[Antara Foto

Search and rescue officials were still looking for 23 people missing after the floods struck the North Luwu district of South Sulawesi province, said Raditya Jati, a spokesman for the national disaster mitigation agency.

Heavy rains had inundated three nearby rivers for several days prompting the evacuation of 655 people due to the floods, officials at the local disaster mitigation agency and search and rescue agency told Reuters.

Indonesia frequently suffers from floods and landslides particularly during the rainy season, though the situation is often made worse by the cutting down of forests.

Flooding also killed 66 people in the Indonesian capital Jakarta in January, amid some of the heaviest rain since records began.

 

[angelburst29]

Flash floods and landslides killed at least 30 people on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi and left hundreds displaced, authorities said on Thursday.

Flash floods kill at least 30 in Indonesia

July 16, 2020 - Fifteen people remain missing, Indonesia search rescue agency spokesman Yusuf Latif said in a statement.

The flash floods struck the North Luwu district of South Sulawesi province after heavy rain on Monday caused three nearby rivers to burst. More than 4,000 residents were affected.

Dramatic TV footage showed dozens of houses partially submerged by thick mud up to their roofs.


Buildings collapse in heavy rain in India's Mumbai, killing eight

July 17, 2020 - Heavy rains lashing India’s financial capital of Mumbai have caused the collapse of a multi-storey building, killing six people and injuring several, authorities said.

The dilapidated six-storey structure in the city’s south was home to five or six families who stayed on after residents were advised to evacuate as it was under repairs, eyewitnesses told television channels.

Two people were declared dead on Thursday evening, with disaster response officials pulling four more bodies from debris during the night, fire and police officials said.

Several people had been trapped under the debris with many more stranded in the portion left standing after the collapse, causing instability, city fire chief P.S. Rahangdale said.

Another building collapsed in the western suburb of Malad earlier, killing two, including a child, and injuring several.

Intense rains over the previous few days prompted weather officials on Thursday to upgrade to ‘red’ from ‘orange’ an alert called for the city and surrounding areas.

 

[angelburst29]

Some beachfront homes on Australia’s east coast have come closer to slipping into the sea after wild storms lashed the coastline, residents said on Friday.

Australian houses on the brink of collapse as wild seas batter the coast (Short video)
July 17, 2020 - Residents of Wamberal, about 90 km (55 miles) north of Sydney, were evacuated after emergency personnel warned their homes might collapse as waves as high as 11 metres sped up erosion, local media reported. The suburb has a population of about 6,300.

The storms were forecast to continue late on Friday, with the situation repeated at towns along the country’s eastern coastline.

“We’re all so anxious and frightened and vulnerable, and quite frankly angry that we’ve come to this situation, which we knew was going to happen because the revetment wall wasn’t built,” said Wamberal resident Margaret Brice.

Revetment walls are permanent structures to prevent erosion of land that are placed on banks or cliffs. Plans to build one at Wamberal have been the subject of community debate for a decade, the Australian Broadcasting Corp reported.

The ABC quoted the Central Coast Council’s director of environment planning, Scott Cox, as saying the community was frustrated but “I can’t authorise people to do work without approval. If residents with sound engineering advice need to do work to save their own home, council won’t be taking any action against them.”

The issue has affected the town since a 1974 storm when houses along the foreshore collapsed into the ocean, the ABC said.

Houses on the brink of collapse as wild seas batter Australia's east coast

Residents of Wamberal, north of Sydney, were evacuated as waves as high as 11m sped up erosion near beachfront homes.PHOTO: EPA-EFE

Two properties partially collapsed after heavy erosion at Wamberal and a third suffered significant damage, the Australian Broadcasting Corp reported on Saturday (July 18). Other property owners have lost land right up to the edge of their houses.

The Bureau of Meteorology said a hazardous surf warning remains in place for much of the New South Wales coast on Saturday with the risk of more damage to beaches.