Yahoo Lifestyle Locals stunned after parked car crushed by falling rock during landslide
The Sydney suburb has been impacted by several major weather events of late, with the latest incident infuriating residents.
With up to ten days of rain expected to fall across New South Wales, which started from Tuesday, millions of Aussies can expect an increased danger on wet roads.
But the heavy deluge over the past couple of days has left a Sydney community shaken after a landslide caused a six-tonne sandstone slab to fall on and crush a parked car.
Photos shared by a local woman show a silver sedan stopped on the side of Whale Beach Road in Palm Beach, on the city's Northern Beaches. A huge sandstone slab is still resting up against one side of the vehicle after claims it fell from above, landing on the roof and smashing the windscreen.
Thankfully, no one was in the car at the time and there were no injuries, the resident told Yahoo News Australia. The road was allegedly closed off to residents for some time until it was cleaned up council.
New development blamed for erosion causing landslides
It's understood the area has recently been impacted by several major weather events with landslides, or landslips a regular occurrence during heavy rain. Residents were quick to blame ongoing construction in the area for the incident.
"Many dwellings are being built into the rock face which affects groundwater flow and increases erosion," one concerned resident shared in a Facebook community group where the pictures were shared on Wednesday.
"This is the result of hacking into the land to create homes that won’t fit without destruction of the environment," another said.
Council responds to landslide claim
Northern Beaches council however told Yahoo News Australia "there are no construction sites directly adjoining or uphill of the landslip site that could have contributed to the landslips" and that "landslips can occur at any time with little warning".
"Council arranged an immediate clean-up of the landslip site at Whale Beach Road, Palm Beach," a spokesperson said in a statement on Friday. "Council crews installed a concrete block catch basin at the roadside as a precaution for any further slippage at this site.
"The site has been inspected by Council’s Geotechnical consultant and the NSW public works engineer who are supportive of the measures implemented."
More rain to sweep across NSW
The Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) confirmed to Yahoo on Tuesday there's expected to be at least seven days in a row of rain in NSW with other major forecasters predicting that figure could blow out to 10 days.
"Over the next seven days there's a high to very high chance of showers or rain across large areas of the NSW coast, particularly along the northern and central coast," a BoM spokesperson said. "There could be 10mm and above recorded over consecutive days.
"There is also an increased chance of showers and rain with the risk of potentially heavy falls and flash flooding over the weekend, as a coastal trough deepens in the later part of the week, possibly forming into a low-pressure system."
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