Isaak Salami is stuck on the wrong side of the Windsor bridge, with a fractured arm and a resignation the rising Hawkesbury River will likely prevent him from getting home.
Salami had returned to Windsor, in north-west Sydney, after a ski trip that ended with his arm in a sling, but has been living out of a hotel room, waiting out the torrential rain.
“I’m stuck here for a couple of days, and in March I also got stuck, but on the other side, where I live.”
“It kind of sucks, because the bridge is supposed to flood proof, and it obviously isn’t,” he said. “It’s definitely become more difficult to live here, because you just don’t know what will happen every time it rains.”
“Every time it rains, we wonder if the bridge will go under.”
Much like many of the residents who live around the Hawkesbury, Salami’s life has been thrown into disarray by the heavy rain and wild weather.
But there is a resignation that hangs over the region, which is facing its second major flood in four months, with many telling the Guardian the flooding has become part of their life.
“What can we do about it?” Salami asks, “It’s frustrating, and while I know it’s related to climate change, and that we can do more on that, but who can we blame?”
While the east coast low that has brought the torrential rain had eased by Monday afternoon, rain has continued to pelt the region.
The Bureau of Meteorology issued a major flood warning for the Hawkesbury at Windsor, with river levels “possibly reaching around the March 2021 and March 2022 flood levels”.
The rain caused flood waters to rise rapidly, with some residents being caught out by its speed and the many suddenly closed roads.
Brian Russel needed to be rescued after he took one wrong turn, and got stuck, clambering onto his car’s rooftop so he didn’t drown.
“I started coming down on the road when all of a sudden it just got deeper and deeper, the car stopped and started to flood,” he said “It was really traumatic, I couldn’t even open the sunroof.”
Russel said he climbed onto the roof of his car to stay safe, with the SES and NSW police coming to his rescue. Drenched but in good spirits, he said he was going to be ok.
“It’s OK, I live in the high part of Richmond. But this is the fourth time we’ve seen this floods, it’s a bit much, bit dramatic.”
“But there’s nothing you can do, it’s an act of God.”
Don Levy’s home in McGrath Hill was flooded in March, with the the water reaching “knee-depth,” but said he was not too “stressed” about the water lapping his front yard once again.
He said he was “used to it”, nonchalantly marching through the water in his shorts and thongs, even brushing aside a wasp sitting on his beanie.
“We’re hoping it doesn’t come in again this time, but we have been getting used to it.”
“This time is not as stressful as last time, it feels like we are better prepared, it doesn’t bother us as much,” he said “It’s expected because we live on a floodplain, with all the other rigmarole and people talking, it isn’t going to change anything.”
“We accept that living here is just going to get more difficult.”
Many residents in McGraths Hill, which is on the outskirts of Windsor, have only just come to terms with the damage caused by the flooding in March, and felt frustrated by the repeat damage.
Members of the Oakville United Soccer Club stood on the street that once led on to their fields, despairing as they watched their clubhouse flood for a second time this year.
Dylan Loutkovsky has been with the club for 22 years, and says he is devastated.
“We only got games going on Friday, and we were meant to play Premier League this Saturday. We’ve only played one game this year,” he said.
“Our club is suffering, we’re losing members over this, it’s slowly dying now because of all the floods. Seventeen boys were meant to play here, every team was excited to get back out there.”
Loutkovsky, dressed in his club’s jacket, said his club wouldn’t be able to return to the field until “late this year”, and that the flood waters would destroy “everything” in the clubhouse.
“Everything in the clubhouse has been destroyed, it’s so heartbreaking, I’m just devastated.”
There is a frustration that residents feel at the repeat nature of the floods, and the way it is affecting their livelihoods.
The Windsor bridge, once considered to be flood resistant, was submerged for the third time this year on Monday, cutting many people off from their homes and jobs.
Jason McCallum owns an engineering business that employs 20 people, but could only have one person working today as his workshops are cut off due to the flooding.
It is the second time this year his business has been adversely affected by the rain, and says the situation is getting frustrating.
“This bridge has been closed five times in the last two years, it feels like it’s just wrong. And it’s all mismanagement of Warragamba Dam, they need to find a solution to this.
“It’s not just frustrating, it’s hurting me financially. We have jobs that need to go out today and we can’t. And if the bridge is really closed for 11 days, that’s just unbelievable.”
