Clarkson resident Lisa Wilson toldWAtoday she had been watching her children playing in their backyard just before 1pm Friday when rain suddenly began pelting down.
The flash flooding in a street in Clarkson,north of Perth.Lisa Wilson
“It was a beautiful,sunny day and then[the rain] started,and it just didn’t stop,” she said.
“Suddenly,there was hail.
“The backyard and our shed started to flood,and then I looked out the front and realised our street was like a river.”
Wilson said the rain had now eased,but her garage remained without power.
The suburb was one of several hit by more than 100 millimetres of rain within a couple of hours,flooding parts of the Mitchell Freeway and breaking the month-long drought.
Authorities were quickly overwhelmed with requests for assistance,with a Department of Fire and Emergency Services spokesperson confirming several people had been rescued from their cars amid rising floodwaters and dozens of others had reported flooding in their homes with the State Emergency Service responding to more than 45 calls for help.
Footage has since emerged on social media of residents taking the opportunity to kayak down suburban streets,while others dodged a collapsed roof at Ocean Keys Shopping Centre.
Another video shows residents wading through water and stuck in their vehicles.
The Bureau of Meteorology said the threat of severe thunderstorm activity in the Greater Perth area had temporarily eased,however,the redevelopment of severe thunderstorms remained possible.
At its peak,the official emergency warning area spanned more than 200 kilometres between Jurien Bay and Hillarys,stretching as far inland as Gingin.
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