Council is putting the final touches on a new system designed to give the community live information about the status of four flood-prone bridges in the shire.
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Cameras have been installed to monitor river levels and display the condition of the following bridges:
The cameras are currently in the process of being recalibrated but normally images will be updated every 30 minutes.
Each image is time and date stamped within the black footer in the bottom right hand side of the image, to identify when the image was taken.
Lavenders Bridge, Moodys Bridge and Spicketts Bridge all have water level sensors that trigger a first alarm when the river levels rise to 300mm below the road deck so council work crews can install 'Caution' signage to alert road users.
A second alarm is also triggered when river levels rise to the road deck, so council work crews can erect 'Road Closed' signage.
Lean's Bridge also has similar sensors and alarms but there the onsite electronic flood signage will be automatically updated.
There's a chance the flood cam system may get a workout quite soon, given that the Bureau of Meteorology has just issued a severe weather warning for heavy rainfall for the Northern Rivers, Mid North Coast and parts of Northern Tablelands.
"It is most likely that the heaviest rainfall will be focused about the Northern Rivers during Thursday, then the Mid North Coast during Friday," the warning issued at midday today said.
On Tuesday at 3pm, BOM released the video below, which says:
"By the end of the weekend some coastal communities may have received several days of either frequent showers or rain.
"While we don't know exactly where it will develop, it is very likely that intense bursts of rainfall with embedded thunderstorms will lead to flooding, as rainfall totals in excess of 100mm are expected in some areas."
BOM have also issued an Initial Flood Watch for the New South Wales Coastal Rivers from the Tweed to the Hastings
Issued at 12:28 pm EDT on Wednesday 5 February 2020
Flood Watch Number: 1
RIVER LEVEL RISES ABOVE THE MODERATE FLOOD LEVEL ARE POSSIBLE ACROSS THE NORTHERN RIVERS AND THE MID NORTH COAST
Rainfall is expected to increase along the New South Wales northern coast from Thursday, as a low pressure trough deepens in the area. Intense rainfall is possible for some areas.
Coastal catchments are relatively wet due to recent rainfall.
High tides may exacerbate flood conditions in low lying coastal areas.
A Severe Weather Warning has been issued for the Northern Rivers, Mid North Coast and Northern Tablelands districts.
Catchments likely to be affected include:
Tweed and Rouse Rivers minor flooding
Wilsons River moderate flooding
Richmond River minor flooding
Orara River minor flooding
Coffs Coast minor flooding
Bellinger and Kalang Rivers moderate flooding
Nambucca River moderate flooding
Macleay River minor flooding
Hastings River minor flooding
Camden Haven River minor flooding
To access Bellingen Shire bridge cameras and real-time images, click on the following link: Bridge Flood Camera Network