MELBORNE: Thousands of people across Australia’s southeast were asked to evacuate their homes on Friday, including some in a western suburb of Melbourne, after two days of incessant rains triggered flash flooding and fast-moving waters burst river banks.
Large parts of Victoria state, southern New South Wales and the northern regions of the island state of Tasmania were pounded by an intense weather system with some taking more than a month’s worth of rain since late Wednesday, officials said.
“Our river systems … are reaching major flood levels at various times over today, through the weekend and through next week,” Victoria emergency services chief operations officer Tim Wiebusch told reporters. Many rivers in Victoria, including the Maribyrnong in Melbourne’s west and the Goulburn further north, reached major flood levels, prompting the night-time evacuation of residents.
The Goulburn River at Seymour, about 100 kilometres north of Melbourne, has peaked above the record 7.64 metres reached in May 1974, data showed. More than 200 flood rescues were conducted by emergency crews.
Upstream in Shepparton, rising flood waters are expected to surpass the 1974 peak by Tuesday and threaten over 4,000 properties. “In terms of property damage, road, public infrastructure and the sheer volume of water, this is going to set new records,” Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said at a news conference.
Andrews said a decision would be made on Saturday about reopening the state’s purpose-built Covid-19 quarantine facility, closed last week after Australia scrapped isolation rules, to shelter flood-impacted residents.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the federal government stood ready to provide assistance to the flood-stricken states. “There are already ADF (Australian Defence Force) personnel on the ground in Victoria … this is a difficult time, my heart goes out to those communities affected at this time,” local media quoted him as saying. Footage on social media showed people wading through knee-deep water with their pets and some being rescued in boats, while local media reported about 200 stud horses were at risk of being washed away in the rural Victorian town of Mangalore. –Agencies
