Wet weather has wreaked havoc in the Midwest and Murchison in WA, with flooded roads isolating residents, power outages shutting down traffic lights, and more than 30,000 houses being left without power.
Heavy rains in the Murchison have flooded roads throughout the district, cutting off a remote community and pastoral stations from supplies.
And residents in Geraldton and surrounds were without power and traffic lights for several hours this morning.
State Emergency Service Geraldton-Greenough manager Ross Jones said volunteers had 13 requests for help because of flooding on Thursday night, mainly in the suburbs of Mount Tarcoola and Wandina, in Geraldton’s south.
He said volunteers created "walls of sandbags at peoples" doors to divert water away.
The calls for help continued on Friday.
“We are getting a few calls from residents today requesting sandbags,” Mr Jones said.
He said the SES was offering residents sandbags with a limit of 10 per household from the group’s headquarters near the Geraldton airport.
Official rainfall figures show 44 millimetres of rain fell in Geraldton over the past 24 hours, but anecdotal reports are much higher, with some residents recording more than twice that amount.
Cut-off from the world
Flooded roads into the Pia Wadjarri community have left residents without fresh food since last Wednesday.
Authorities are airlifting essential supplies to the remote township today, including 500 kilograms of food.
Pia Wadjarri community member Kylie Simpson said residents had no way of getting in or out.
"At the moment … because we have unsealed roads … all those roads have closed," she said.
Ms Simpson said the problem was intensified because a COVID-related community lockdown had prevented people travelling to Geraldton for supplies before the road closures.
Pastoralists marooned
Earlier in the week, Murchison pastoralists Josh and Jocelyn Pumpa from Murgoo Station also found themselves marooned after recording 175mm of rain from a thunderstorm, nearing or breaking a rainfall record for the station.
Mr Pumpa said the rain began at 5pm on Tuesday and fell for seven hours.
He said it was so heavy that visibility was restricted to about 1 to 2 metres.
"But we weren't expecting to see what we saw when we woke up in the middle of the night.
"We were celebrating the rain, had a couple of beers. I was having a nice old sleep, next minute I get a kick in the ribs. I jumped out of bed and landed in about 300 millimetres of water. "
Additional reporting by Joanna Prendergast
