What You Can do in a Severe Storm or Flood

• Before - things you can do to prepare yourself and your home in the
  event of a severe storm and possible local flooding.
   
• During - things you can do to protect yourself and your home during a severe storm.
   
• After - what you can do to recover after a storm or local flooding.

What is a severe storm?

A severe storm in the ACT is usually a large thunderstorm that develops under moist, unstable weather conditions. These may be part of a band of storms across south-east Australia, they may form in a low-pressure trough over our area, or they form over the highlands behind Canberra and drift across.

What damage can they do?

Severe storms can produce:

• strong winds - these localised winds experienced when a storm passes near can bring down trees and unroof sheds or houses. This is a common event in Canberra.
   
• heavy rain - rain in excess of 50mm in an hour causes flash flooding. The floodways around Canberra are designed for such events. However many smaller drains may overflow, leading to blocked roads and flooded buildings (especially basements and car parks). Roof gutters often overflow, damaging the contents of buildings. Many road accidents occur during storms, mainly due to water lying over roads.
   
• hail - hail can cause damage through its impact, especially by large hailstones, or by blocking drains and causing overflows. Large hailstones are unusual in Canberra.
   
• lightning - it threatens people in the open (e.g. on golf courses); if this hits power lines it can cause power surges, which damage electrical equipment; it can damage anything that it hits and may cause bushfires if it hits dry vegetation.
   
• tornados - these may develop under thunderstorms and cause localised severe damage. While rare, they have been recorded in the southern tablelands.

What is the risk in the ACT?

The risk of storm damage in the ACT is less than the risk in some parts of Australia, especially the tropics. However it is a real risk to most residents. Most houses experience some storm damage at some time.

All residents of the ACT should take the effort to protect their buildings from storm damage.