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A severe storm caused flash-flooding & seven deaths due to drowning and injuries. Widespread flooding occurred in Woden Valley, south-east of the city, which rapidly filled the concrete-lined creek that ran beside the Woden Valley freeway.
At the time of the storm, the freeway was packed with commuters heading home. As the deluge began, the traffic halted - culverts at one end of the valley became blocked with debris, and the backup sent a flash flood surging onto the freeway.
Flash flooding engulfed more than a dozen cars and swept them into its torrent. Roads and stormwater systems were damaged. At a subsequent coroner's inquiry into the drownings, engineers described how the valley's stormwater system had been designed to accommodate a "100-year-storm". Its impact may have been a storm of this magnitude, but its effect was exacerbated by excessive runoff from urbanised land which, a decade previously, had been grassland and woodland. |
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