Rain - enough to drown a few rats

Blocked Gutter
overflowing, causing
water to flow into
CTC driveway
We had a mini-flood at the CTC@Robertson today. Not a real flood like the Hunter River floods, but more water than we wanted.

The CTC is the local "Technology Centre" where I and a bunch of other local people volunteer.




Water in driveway
coming from road
I cannot say how much rain we got today, as the Bureau's reporting system is on the blink (there is no "dot" on the map for Robertson, not today anyway.) I have reported this same fault previously, but today, both the reporting system for both the Caalong St and "Pie Shop" monitoring stations have failed. The Bureau have acknowledged that there is a problem, and have promised to remedy the situation, as the "Pie Shop" meter is a "Flood Alert" station, which is fair enough, given its position beside the Macquarie Rivulet. Water in that stream runs straight over several waterfalls, down Macquarie Pass, and can cause floods in Albion Park.
As a matter of record, Robertson received 104 mm of rain up till 9:00am today. We had 96mm reported for the previous 24 hours, so that is 200mm in total. (Scroll down the Rainfall charts, till you get to the "Lower Shoalhaven" table). Remember that the Bureau's system is not reporting anything for either local station today, and as you can see from these photos it was indeed raining today. These photos were taken between 10:00 am and 11:45 am. When I left, there was water across the road near the School, and down near the railway line crossing on the Illawarra Highway.
I conclude that more rain has fallen today than in either of the previous two days (when the main street of Robbo did not flood). If my estimate is correct, we will have exceeded our February "rainfall event".

This is me, trying to clean up the mud from the back entranceway path. Pretty futile, really, as more rain was falling. Still, I did manage to clear a few blockages, to allow the water to escape more quickly, thus minimising the "backing up" of water.
Thanks to Paula for taking the photo.

I have removed small shrubs which were blocking water from flowing away from the concrete apron for the disabled parking spot.

I will put in a path through the gap in the mini-hedge there, so that it looks OK. But not today! Oh, by the way, I was the "Drowned Rat" in the title, but no doubt there were a few others like me, in Robbo today.