An early warning system for flooding would help Jamberoo Community Preschool - but not as much as actually stopping the water from coming under the door.
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After the storms on February 9, staff came to work and spent the day mopping up the water that had raced through the preschool.
"We're still throwing away equipment that was just replaced, carpets and soft furnishings that were on the floor, books that we lost," said director Belinda Hibbert
"Things like the early warning warning system doesn't stop all that happening."
At the last Kiama Municipal Council meeting, Mayor Neil Reilly put forward a motion to investigate an early warning system to alert the preschool of the potential for flooding.
February's flooding was the sixth time in recent years it has happened; Ms Hibbert said it happens every February and August.
"One of the regularly impacted sites is council's Jamberoo School of Arts building which houses the Jamberoo preschool," council papers stated.
"On each occasion the preschool is impacted when rainfall run-off in excess of the underground pipe system, flows overland and through the rear of the building."
And Ms Hibbert has had enough; the regular flooding has seen the preschool's insurance excess rise to $30,000.
"We're happy to see that Kiama council is now wanting to help us," she said.
"But whilst the early warning system is a great step forward it's not exactly what I would have liked to have seen as an immediate action.
"I need to stop the water coming in the building. That is what we need right now."
She said a 2021 council flood study included a reference to a system with a sensor that springs out of the ground in front of the doorways to stop water entering the building.
Cr Reilly's motion, which was passed by council, also called for the council to write to both sides of politics for "support in finding a long term solution to relocate the Jamberoo preschool to a purpose-built facility, potentially attached to the school system".
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Glen Humphries
I'm an award-winning senior journalist with the Illawarra Mercury and have well over two decades' worth of experience in newspapers. I cover the three local councils in the Illawarra for the Mercury, state and federal politics, as well as writing for the TV guide. If I'm not writing, I'm reading.
I'm an award-winning senior journalist with the Illawarra Mercury and have well over two decades' worth of experience in newspapers. I cover the three local councils in the Illawarra for the Mercury, state and federal politics, as well as writing for the TV guide. If I'm not writing, I'm reading.
