Floodwaters to cut off Vic town for a week

Callum Godde, Cassandra Morgan and Kaitlyn Offer | October 17, 2022

Floodwaters could isolate the northern Victorian town of Kerang for a week as the state’s flood disaster continues to unfold.

The Loddon River is expected to peak at 78 metres above mean sea level in Kerang, about 280km kilometres northwest of Melbourne, on Wednesday or Thursday.

A sandbag levee is expected to help keep the majority of the town dry but it could be cut off for up to seven days, Victorian State Emergency Service chief operations officer Tim Wiebusch said.

“We are asking the Kerang community to consider whether they should now be moving to another location,” he told reporters on Monday.

Other Victorian towns are moving to the clean-up phase, with the state government announcing a $351 million flood recovery package.

The disaster funding includes $165 million in emergency road fixes, such as filling potholes and repairing surfaces to get people and freight moving.

“This is an initial amount of money and it will underpin those emergency repairs,” Premier Daniel Andrews said.

Fees will also be waived for residents in 46 local government areas so they can remove flood waste without any charges, the state government confirmed.

More rain is forecast in the coming days and the floods are expected to impact the state’s north for four-to-six weeks.

Federal Emergency Management Minister Murray Watt said modelling indicated more than 9000 homes were inundated in Victoria’s north and about 34,000 homes across the state could be flooded or isolated.

The Goulburn River at Shepparton peaked overnight at 12.05m, below the forecast peak of 12.1m and the 1974 flood level of 12.09m.

“That 15 centimetres makes a significant difference to the number of properties either isolated or impacted,” Mr Wiebusch said.

“We believe around 4000 properties there are now either isolated or have some levels of inundation.”

Images show buildings in the middle of town surrounded by a vast inland sea of brown, muddy water and residents using sandbags to protect properties.

At Rochester, where waters have receded to a moderate flood level, about 800 to 900 homes have flooded but it is too early for authorities to confirm the extent of the damage.

A 71-year-old man was found dead in the backyard of his home in the town on Saturday.

Floodwaters have subsided in Maribyrnong in Melbourne’s west, where police confirmed an unoccupied house was looted on Monday morning by a man in high-vis clothing who fled in a car with another two men.

A warning has also been issued for the Wimmera River, with Horsham residents told major flooding is possible on Monday and into Tuesday.

The Campaspe River at Barnadown, Rochester Town and Echuca peaked on Monday morning with major flooding occurring – higher than in 2011.

The SES has received more than 6000 calls for help and carried out more than 650 flood rescue requests since Wednesday when heavy rainfall began to lash the state.

Disaster recovery payments have been made available to residents in 23 local government areas and a 250-bed camp will open at the former Mickleham COVID-19 quarantine facility.

About 100 ADF personnel have been deployed to help with evacuations and sandbagging and Emergency Management Commissioner Andrew Crisp said Victoria had requested additional aviation support from Tuesday.

More than 70 schools and early-learning centres were closed across the state on Monday amid the start of exams for senior students.

The Victorian health department has also warned of the increased risk of bacterial outbreaks such as leptospirosis and mosquito activity.