AFTER: A photo from local resident Max Cochrane’s helicopter taken on Sunday after the storm.
MAX and Denise Cochrane from Bolong, who own a helicopter, went flying over the region on Sunday.
Their birds-eye view of the path of destruction left them speechless.
“After Saturday’s stormy night, Sunday turned out a glorious morning so we went up to check out the water lying around,” Mr Cochrane said.
“I spotted damage to a house up the road just by chance and then we flew up to Shoalhaven Heads and saw more damage. We could clearly see a path of damage like a tornado path, like large paths had been cleared of trees.
“That path went up Coolangatta Mountain.
“I had never seen anything like it,” he said.
The couple flew down to Comerong Island and across to Terara where they saw more damage and followed the path of destruction along Terara Road before heading back to the ground.
“Later in the day I went up again and tried to get to Kiama but the weather was too bad,” Mr Cochrane said.
“I made it to Gerroa and following the path of destruction it looked like it went from Kiama, out to sea came back in and hit Coolangatta, then Terara and up along Terara Road before it cut across to council and then almost straight across to the cancer centre,” he said.
Mrs Cochrane said despite being hit by strong winds through Saturday night she did not realise how much damage it had caused until she saw it from the air.
“I couldn’t believe all the flattened trees and the houses damaged at Coolangatta,” she said.