Albany is reeling from the sudden storm and flash flooding that gripped the city on Thursday night and in the early hours of Friday morning as many residents clean-up and assess the damage.
Bayonet Head resident Sherie Van Burgel said the gutters on her home started overflowing during the storm, and that her shed and chicken coop also flooded.
She described the flooding as a “bad chain of events” and said the flooding damaged outside fitness equipment that needs to be disposed of.
“It just came out of nowhere and our gutters started overflowing,” Ms Van Burgel said.
“We’ve been in this house for 10 years and we’ve never ever had anything like this before, even when there’s a severe weather warning, we don’t pack away the trampoline, we don’t really move anything because nothing bad ever happens.”
Ms Van Burgel’s chickens were rescued from their outdoor chicken coop and survived the night inside the family home.
“Much to my husband’s disgust we were out there at nine o’clock at night, in our pyjamas, rescuing our five chickens,” she said.
“I was worried the back fence was going to go — all the animals were accounted for safe inside.”
Albany recorded 126mm of rain between 9am Thursday and 9am Friday, while other areas such as Mt Barker recorded 106mm by 8am on Friday.
Spencer Park resident Richard Norman said his garage and mud room flooded during the storm, and a neighbouring family had to evacuate their home.
“I’m on a three unit strata set-up and all three properties were basically surrounded by water,” he said.
“You could watch the water rising up to our door levels.
“It came in through all three garages . . . and then into the adjacent mud rooms into my property.”
Mr Norman said the rain was “excessively heavy” and spent Friday drying his house out.
“I walked out into my driveway last night and it was sort of halfway up to my knees, and that’s how deep it was that the lawns and gardens were flooded,” he said.
Shire of Plantagenet president Len Handasyde said there was “quite a variation” in rainfall across the shire.
“Two hundred and 10 millimetres at Woodenellup, the Carbarup floodway closed, Woodenellup floodway closed, gravel roads in the eastern part of the shire closed at 4.5 tonnes and higher,” he said.
“There was 135mm in South Porongurup’s, 30mm in South Stirling, 30mm in Rocky Gully, 60mm in Forest Hill.
Albany mayor Greg Stocks spent Friday cleaning up his home and assessing flood damage, saying that sand from a nearby building site ended up in his yard and bedroom.
“We’ve got to replace all our floorboards, some of our gyprocking, and we had a flooded bedroom,” he said.
Mr Stocks thanked the City of Albany staff and volunteers who helped with the clean-up around Albany following the floods.