King tides, wild winds destroy jetties, cause flooding on SA coast
King tides, rain and strong winds have battered South Australia's coast, destroying three historic jetties and flooding properties with seawater.
Wind gusts of 91 kilometres per hour were recorded at Cape Jaffa yesterday and gust of 78kph were recorded at Robe.
At Kingston South East on the Limestone Coast the tide and wind completely split the 161-year-old jetty in two.
"We do understand part of it has certainly collapsed and it's detached from one end to the other," Kingston District Council chief executive Ian Hart said.
"It's probably not salvageable for a repair.
The tide, waves and wind also forced water up the Maria Creek and led to flooding in low-lying areas.
Roads were closed and power was cut to the Rosetown area for safety reasons.
Thirty-six homes are still without electricity.
Tony Bryant's home is near the creek and said the flooding turned his home into "an island".
"We live over the back of Maria Creek, which has burst its bank with the king tide and the wind surge and flooded all of Rosetown again," he said.
Mr Hart said the flooding was significant.
"People who lived in the area a lot longer than I have say they've never seen anything like it for 50 years or more," he said.
The busy tourist town of Robe's jetty – already closed due to damage from a storm a month ago – was also split in two and one home was inundated as the Lake Butler Marina flooded.
Robe District Council chief executive Nat Traeger said the jetty was estimated to be worth $250,000.
"There's some long-time locals there that have said they've not seen the coast or the sea as violent as it has been," she said.
Part of the esplanade road at Fox Beach was washed away when waves crashed through and over sand dunes.
"We've done some emergency work late last night … but we are now in a situation where we have road and foreshore side by side," Ms Traeger said.
"There is no stop-gap with a sand dune there at all, so that is going to be a major problem for us and that road will be closed indefinitely."
To the north, Normanville's 157-year-old jetty was also destroyed.
Kiosk owner Rhett Day said the wind and waves slowly tore the jetty apart over the course of about five hours.
"Now, there's just a couple of pylons sitting out on their own with a couple of twisted and buckled hand rails," he said.
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