Thursday's severe thunderstorm that swept through Lismore reiterated some old concerns for some CBD businesses as well as revealed some new concerns about the drainage on Keen Street.

Lismore City Council (LCC) released a statement referring to drain blockages and ongoing maintenance as well as future work to help the water flow to the river system faster Lismore City Council addresses recovery of drainage system.

Local business owners on Keen Street feel blockages may be part of the issue, however, poor design is more likely the cause.

Matt Healey from Daleys Homewares at 83 Keen Street said his shop never used to flood before council resurfaced Eggins Lane (part of the Back Alley Gallery) back in August 2021.

(The old Eggins lane)

Since completion, any intense rainfall causes the back end of his shop to flood and depending on how much is received, it can flow through his shop to the Keen Street entrance. As was the case on Thursday.

"We had about 35 mil in about half an hour which was not an unusual storm event, maybe a little more than normal. Once again, Eggins Lane was completely overwhelmed by the water," Matt explained.

"The new road, which is less than two years old, and is completely inappropriate for drainage. Water poured through my shop and out to the front door in Keen Street."

Following engineer reports and community consultation, LCC said the reconstruction would:

• fix long-standing drainage issues in Eggins Lane as well as improve the poor condition of the road surface. Work will include: removing old drainage infrastructure such as piping, inlet pits, kerb and gutter, and driveway gutter bridges,
• installing new underground roof-water connections, stormwater piping and inlet pits, and
• reconstructing the road surface and sealing.

Before LCC fixed the drainage issues in Eggins Lane, a lot of the businesses facing Keen Street did not have a problem with stormwater. But they do now.

Daleys, Curious Craft, Shoppe One, Cut Loose and Scoops & Candy never used to be affected by stormwater from Eggins Lane, but they are now, some worse than others.

Daleys was the only shop that had water flowing through the shop to Keen Street, the others were lucky it stopped at a small step before it could enter the shop.

All owners say the drainage is not adequate for stormwater.

When you walk along Eggins Lane, you can see that building downpipes don't meet the drains. There is a gap between the two. So, when water from all buildings in question flows off the roof and onto Eggins Lane, only some pours into the drain with the rest flowing down the Lane to a larger drain near the back of Matt Healy's Daleys shop.

If the impact from Eggins Lane isn't enough, there is the impact of gutters overflowing and water leaking into businesses via common walls and the potential of flooding from Keen Street, which was only reconstructed in December 2022.

Once again, there is concern of the new drains not being large enough to handle stormwater before it flows into a larger drain on its way to the Wilsons River.

The result of Thursday's severe thunderstorm was a loss of business for a number of owners.

Daleys had to clear water from the shop so reopened at 10:30am.

Caitlin from Best and Less had water flowing from the roof onto the first floor which then flowed onto the main shop floor. They reopened at 2:45pm and traded until 6pm.

Bec at the Curious Craft Bottle Shop had so much water in the shop she cleaned up and went home to regroup and start again on Friday.

Janice at Shoppe One, Amanda at Cut Loose and Felicity at Scoops & Candy, all had water in their shops but not enough to close the shop. It was mainly at the back end towards Eggins Lane.

All shop owners and managers are much better prepared for these sorts of scenarios so stock loss is minimal but the loss of trading hours is something you can't get back.

The Lismore App asked LCC some specific questions about Eggins Lane and what they can do to fix the stormwater problems. The answer we received was the statement from yesterday afternoon that addressed drains in general but not any specific location.

It will be an interesting storm season on 2023/24.