Valley hammered by rain

The Coutts Crossing area experienced widespread flash flooding after a torrential downpour on Tuesday night. In some parts of the Valley more than 100mm fell in the space of a few hours.

JoJo Newby

AFTER being teased with a brief glimpse of blue sky and sunshine on Tuesday, the Clarence Valley was hit with a heavy deluge on Tuesday night, leaving many communities reeling yesterday.

Between 8pm on Tuesday and 9am yesterday parts of the Valley were hammered with more than 100mm of rain, causing wide- spread flash flooding, road closures and even the drowning death of Coutts Crossing man Robert Fox, who was trying to cross floodwater in a vehicle when he was swept away.

Although the rainfall hadn't yet caused a significant rise in the Clarence River yesterday, the Orara River, which suffered major flooding last week was well up again, peaking at 7.2m at Glenreagh about 10am with moderate flooding before slowly falling again last night.

Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) duty observer for the Coffs Harbour Field Office, Janet Shelley, said Tuesday night's rain was due to weather conditions very similar to those which caused major flooding in the Northern Rivers last week.

""Basically we had a broad low pressure trough come through that extended from Central Queensland into north-eastern New South Wales, which is basically the same situation as last week," Ms Shelley said.

But there could be some relief on the horizon.

Ms Shelley said current weather modelling indicated the wet weather may move on by the weekend.

"This trough has essentially stalled over us over the past few days but it's expected to move south Thursday and Friday which should give us an easing trend in the weather," she said.

RAINFALL

(24 hours to 9am yesterday)

Grafton 129mm

Glenreagh 102mm

Baryulgil 72mm

Lilydale 62mm

Nymboida 62mm

Pillar Valley 34mm