Weather Forecasters warned of the intensity of this storm before it hit parts of Queensland and travelled south to Sydney here over the weekend - and now we know why. Tens of thousands of people remain without power from one the most powerful storms to hit this part of Australia in 4 decades.
Robert MConnell didn’t have to explain to his workers why no one was going inside the beachside club in the Sydney suburb of Collaroy. Not after the massive surf ripped away a part of the building - and scattered it into pieces.
"This is devastating particularly for us, we are a nice little community club and we try to do our best with a 100 year old building and try and give back to the community," MConnell said.
"I’m standing here looking at a club I’m a member of where I can normally sit out and have a meal and a drink and look out over the ocean, well the balcony is no longer there so I won’t be sitting there for a while," Resident Elaine Mawhinney said.
Just metres down the beach. Lifeguards who normally patrolled the waters were busy clearing away the sand and debris that had pounded their surf club.
"You hear the waves every night but with the rain it muffled it and I didn’t realise how bad it was until I got up here this morning," Resident Barry Conway said.
Onlookers were punished for getting too close to a storm that dropped record amounts of rain across parts of New South Wales.
Umbrellas proved useless as roads turned into rivers, trees toppled, and power supplies were knocked out for tens of thousands of homes.
Emergency workers were kept busy - with more than 250 water rescues, and almost 10-thousand calls for help.
Meteorologists say all of this was caused by a series of perfect storm events, including waves that took an unusual direction pounding straight onto beaches along the east coast, and some of the highest tides of the year.
Despite the damage, McConnell remained optimistic.
"We’ll get back from this, it’s just another hurdle, another challenge," MConnell said.
Emergency crews say it could take days to restore power to those areas hardest hit by the storm.
