Water was waist-deep in Corowa street, new homes impacted

About 15 properties were significantly impacted around the town, including Sophia Close.

John and Colleen Batten have had water lapping at their driveway twice already this summer, but will now have to replace carpet and furniture after water impacted the property.

"It was a sea of water (at the end of the close)," he said.

"When the water was coming up on Saturday night, it got to the driveway and we thought, 'It won't go any further', but it kept coming.

"In 2010 when it flooded at Urana, it came halfway up the driveway, but we didn't live here then."

Mr Batten waded through the waist-deep water at the lowest point of the culdesac to knock on the door of his neighbours, Brad and Karen Lewis.

Mrs Lewis said their new home was impacted around 1am.

"We had about two centimetres through ours, but it was enough to ruin the carpets and have the skirting boards start to buckle," Mrs Lewis said.

"We've been here 12 months in February; the week before we moved into our house, it got up to just above the mailbox, but that was the highest we'd seen it.

"We came over to help John and Colleen and we were waist-deep in water."

About five homes were impacted toward the end of the close, which slopes towards an egress where a council pump is located to flush out excess storm-water.

The home owners believed the pump had stopped working, with council workers attending on Sunday night and again inspecting it on Monday.

Mr Batten acknowledged the extent of rainfall was significant but hoped a secondary pump would be installed and the situation investigated.

"It usually flows over to the dam and a ditch, but this time because there was so much rain, they filled up and the water couldn't go over," he said.

"There was seven inches of rain - 175 millimetres - that I tipped out from the gauge."

The Sophia Close resident of six years said neighbours had come together to help each other.

"Yesterday morning, Brad and Karen and their three daughters, and a few of their family and people from next door were all here," Mr Batten said.

"We had 12 people here at least, cleaning up, and they did a fantastic job.

"It's an inconvenience ... but compared to people you see on the television where they have water halfway up the wall and they're sloshing out mud, we're fortunate."

The Lewis and Batten families are now working with insurers and continuing their clean-up.

Federation Council general manager Adrian Butler said he had spoken to many flood-affected residents who had suffered devastating property damage as a result of the unprecedented rainfall.

"This is without a doubt a freak weather event that thankfully doesn't occur often and there is much work to be done collectively by council and residents over many days and weeks ahead," he said.

"Staff continue to triage requests for assistance and we have our teams out at various locations assessing council infrastructure and other property damage.

"I can assure residents that their feedback and requests are being taken into consideration as the clean-up effort continues."

The storm hit the outskirts of Corowa on Redlands Road first, and moved towards the Aerodrome which remained closed yesterday.

Federation mayor Pat Bourke said "a pretty incredible amount of water" had fallen in only hours.

"Council has a lot of work to around the roadways, clearing up debris and that sort of thing," he said.

The industrial estate was impacted and areas including Hume Street, Federation Avenue and Gallipoli Street were heavily impacted.

Federation Council will for the next two weeks offer free waste disposal at their waste facilities located in Corowa and Howlong for flood affected residents.

IN OTHER NEWS:

The Corowa Waste Management Centre is open on Tuesday from 9am until midday and Sunday from 1pm to 4pm.

The Howlong Waste Management Centre is open on Tuesday from 1pm to 4pm and Sunday 9am to midday.

Residents are asked to bring proof of address and flood affected items only to be eligible for free waste disposal.