VIDEO: WaterLu Clothing on Lawrence Hargrave Drive in Thirroul was forced to close after flash flooding rose higher than the footpath and came into her store.
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Torrential rain across the northern Illawarra at the weekend has left dozens of residents and business owners calling for help from the State Emergency Service.
Between 9am Saturday and 8am Sunday, 63 requests for help were made in the Illawarra - 21 of those from the Thirroul area - for help with leaking and damaged rooves, requests for sandbags with flash flooding threatening properties, plus trees fallen on roads and one which crushed part of a house at Austinmer.
Wollongong SES Deputy Unit Commander Menno Schaaf had said on Saturday there had been a few landslips reported in the northern suburbs, mainly on roads, and warned that the region was a risk of landslips given the ongoing rain.
All Wollongong beaches were deemed hazardous for humans due to pollution on Sunday. Shellharbour and Kiama beaches were deemed ok, though all of Wollongong were given a red warning by the daily NSW Beach Watch bulletin and advised people not to swim.
Rainfall data collected by the Manly Hydraulics Laboratory (MHL) shows Russell Vale copping 71.5mm of rain in the last 24 hours and 143.5 in the past 96 hours.
An MHL water level stationed at Hewitt's Creek, which runs from the escarpment down through Thirroul, said showed water levels increased by about 2 metres higher than normal at its peak on Saturday.
It seems rainfall data at the Bureau of Meteorology may be incorrect, with readings at Bellambi showing just 0.2 mm of rain across Saturday.
The Bureau is predicting rain for the rest of the week though in far less quantities seen in recent days - at this stage the heaviest rainfall is expected on Thursday, Friday and Saturday with between 8 mm and 20 mm predicted.
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