More than 270 millimetres of rain drenched the Mountains last week, closing ovals, encouraging fungi and leaving hapless music festival patrons sloshing around in gumboots.
The rain was heaviest last Wednesday (89.2mm) and Sunday (73.6), with the total from Tuesday to Sunday of 271mm recorded at the Mt Boyce weather station in the Upper Mountains.
For the first 20 days of the month, 340 mm of rain has fallen, more than three times above the monthly March average of 103 mm with another 11 days to go.
At the Blue Mountains Music Festival in Katoomba, gumboots, ponchos and umbrellas were everywhere.
Patrons slopped between venues, enjoying the music but battling the elements.
By Sunday morning, The big Top and the Tantric Turtle tents were shut down because of the extremely wet conditions underfoot.
But the crowds still ventured out, particularly for star attractions The Waifs on Saturday night and Paul Kelly on Sunday afternoon.
Near Mt Solitary on Saturday, a 14-year-old boy had a lucky escape when he was washed down a cliff in wet conditions (see P2).
The State Emergency Service received 105 calls over the seven days, said local controller for the Blue Mountains, John Hughes.
But many calls were for leaking roofs, which the SES can do little about, other than offering advice.
Mr Hughes said he even posted advice on the SES Facebook page to discourage people from calling the emergency volunteers.
“Unless there is an obvious cause of the leak, such as a tree has fallen on your house or there has been hail damage, most of the calls we receive for leaking roofs have been for ongoing building maintenance issues.
“Blocked gutters or buildings that are in need of repair require a suitably qualified tradesperson to attend.”
“Placing a tarp on a roof will rarely resolve the problem. Also, to place a tarp on a roof is a high risk task for volunteers to do.”
Mr Hughes said fewer than 10 of the calls were for tree damage. He said volunteers also attended to flooded houses, particularly in the Upper Mountains, placing sandbags to divert water away from homes.
Council closed 21 ovals and parks from Lapstone to Mt Victoria on Wednesday, March 15. They remained closed all week.
A council spokeswoman said the situation was to be reviewed today.
The Bureau of Meteorology has forecast that the wet will continue, although not in the volumes seen last week.
Showers and/or thunderstorms are predicted until Friday with high humidity levels. By the weekend, the showers should be clearing.
