Heavy rain floods roads on Tasmania’s east coast but reprieve on the way

Heavy rain across Tasmania has caused flash flooding, closing roads on the state’s east coast, and dampened the efforts of Christmas shoppers in the state’s south.
The rain has come from a low-pressure system which moved into the state from Victoria, but the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) said it would clear before Christmas Day.
Meteorologist Luke Johnston said most of the rain had fallen in the north east and on the east coast.
“We’ve seen around 70 millimetres recorded in the last 24 hours [to 11:00am on Tuesday] at St Helens and the highest report we’ve had in the last 24 hours is just over 100mm at Gray,” he said.
The heavy rain followed hail storms which hit similar areas late last week.
“If you look at the last four days, there’s been 150mm at Gray, so it’s been a few days with decent rainfalls,” Mr Johnston said.
“It’s nice that the east coast is getting some rain after a period of being fairly dry. It’s certainly in line with the climate outlook and being a La Niña year.”
Carmen Hilton has lived at Gray for two years and said it had been raining for almost 24 hours straight.
“I took the dogs for a walk this morning and we were up to our ankles in water,” she said.
You can see from the gauge it’s almost full again and that’s just since yesterday morning.
“I went over to my sister’s and they had to put subtitles on the TV because she couldn’t actually hear the telly it was that loud.”
We’re not complaining, we’re farmers so we’re happy to get the rain,” Ms Hilton said.
Little Swanport recorded just over 60mm of rain to 11:00am on Tuesday and Larapuna (Eddystone Point) recorded 71mm.
Hobart recorded a dump of 23mm between 9:00am and 2:00pm.
Campers, residents and motorists were forced to take an emergency access road to get to the popular Binalong Bay area.
The main road to Binalong Bay — the Binalong Bay Causeway — was closed due to flash flooding, while Gardens Road just after Kennell Hill Road was also closed due to water covering a bridge.
The Ansons Bay Causeway has also been closed.
Break O Day Mayor Mick Tucker said his farm, about 5 kilometres out of St Helens, received about 110mm to 9:00am on Tuesday.
“We’ve been inundated,” he said.
“We’ve got very little damage that we’re aware of, we do have a few roads closed so that’s a bit of an inconvenience for the next 24 hours.”
Rainband expected to ease
The BOM’s Mr Johnston said the rain would continue but was decreasing in intensity.
“We’re still looking at receiving around another 10 to 20 millimetres broadly about the east of the state,” he said.
“Most of that is going to be in the north east, until we see the rainband break up and clear to the north east in the afternoon.”
Mr Tucker said rain this close to Christmas was not uncommon on the east coast.
“I can remember being flooded out on Christmas Day so it’s nothing unusual, we just have to expect the unexpected,” Mr Tucker said.
“It a lot better to have the rain now than on Christmas Day or Boxing Day.”
The BOM has forecast light morning showers about the west and far south for Christmas Day, but said there would be generally fine conditions elsewhere.
The forecast maximum temperatures for Tasmania on Christmas Day are between 17 and 21 degrees Celsius.