Rains wreak havoc on CBD retailers
Retailers have slammed the City after flood waters caused more than $100,000 damage yesterday.
One Stop Electronics, Fine Sight Optical Express, Pazellies and Sports Power on Marine Tce’s northern strip all felt the effects of winter’s opening rains.
One Stop Electronics copped the full brunt of the weather with an estimated $100,000 damage to their shop alone.
The store was under approximately five inches of water yesterday morning, damaging the bulk of their floor stock.
Business owner Sue Svensson said the store would be closed until next week.
“The drainage problem has been a threatening issue for years, but this is the worst we have ever seen it,” she said.
“Retail is down, and this is a huge burden on small businesses.”
The carpet in the store will have to be removed and will cost more than $20,000 to replace.
Mrs Svensson said water damaged floor-stock was worth more than $60,000 but the final cost to the business would be much higher after several days without trading and staff wages were factored in.
City of Greater Geraldton infrastructure planning and design manager Mark Atkinson said the City was aware of the problem.
“The City is currently investigating the inundation of northern Marine Tce resulting from the recent rain events and officers have been on site this morning speaking with affected businesses,” he said.
“The City has secured Federal funding to carry out stormwater harvesting in order to recharge shallow aquifers in the city.
“The benefi t of this innovative work will divert stormwater from the Durlacher St catchment into Maitland Park for infiltration — reducing the flow that currently arrives at the ocean outfall.”
Mid West Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Bill Headley said the flooding was due to an engineering glitch.
“The flooding is clearly an engineering issue and it needs to be solved,” he said.
“We won’t have any trading in Marine Tce if this issue isn’t addressed promptly.”
Mr Atkinson said engineering wasn’t an issue.
“City roads must be designed with drainage, in accordance with industry standards, for their safe operation,” he said.
“The City has an ageing stormwater drainage network that is progressively being replaced through the City’s annual asset renewal program.”
