Newcastle Port officials advise ships to move out of sea
Newcastle Port officials are taking no chances ahead of predicted wild weather, advising more than a dozen ships to move out to sea.
It is five years since the bulk carrier Pasha Bulker ran aground on Newcastle’s Nobbys Beach.
Several other ships also got into trouble as large seas battered the coast.
The Newcastle Port Corporation says today it is preparing for another very severe weather event, stemming from a low pressure system combined with king tides.
13 ships have been advised to pull up their anchors and head out to sea.
The former Chair of the New South Wales Coastal Council, Emeritus Professor Bruce Thom, says the threat cannot be underestimated.
“Having these high tides just lifts the water level up for long periods of time, for hours on end, and with waves crashing in that’s when the storm damage can occur,” he said.
Mr Thom says residents in low-lying areas also need to be prepared.
“One of the interesting things about Newcastle and the Lower Hunter is that the lowlying lands, when you get what we call ‘coincidence events’, you get these storms from the sea,” he said.
“You get a lot of rainfall as you had in 2007, and you get the flooding coming in from the sea and you have the flooding coming in from the land, and the low-lying lands are always at risk.”
The State Emergency Service says it is currently on alert.
Source: ABC News
