Warning of widespread flooding in eastern Victoria

Updated

Major flood warnings have been issued for rivers throughout Gippsland as the region braces for what could be the most widespread flooding in decades.

Up to 200 millimetres of rain has fallen in eastern Victoria over the past 24 hours and another 50 millimetres is forecast in some areas for today.

Residents in low-lying parts of Traralgon had to leave their homes this morning when the Traralgon Creek flooded.

About 100 properties were evacuated and 45 homes were flooded.

Traralgon resident John Papenburg says they did not get enough notice to leave.

"I had no time at all. The water was already up the driveway. I had no hope to get my vehicle out," he told ABC local radio.

"There was little or no warning at all compared to previous years."

The main road through the region, the Princes Highway, is closed between Rosedale and Traralgon and also east of Orbost.

The Monaro Highway north of Cann River in East Gippsland are closed.

The State Emergency Service's Mark Cattell says the flooding will worsen through the day.

"We just need to be vigilant because we could be expecting anywhere up to 60 or 80 millimetres across the whole of the Gippsland area," he said.

"It just depends on where that falls.

"As we saw overnight we had one system there that stalled over the upper reaches and sort of stays around for a bit of time."

There are major flood warnings for the Avon, Macalister, Mitchell, Thomson, Tanjil and Buchan Rivers and the Traralgon Creek.

Jill, a landowner near Boolarra, just south of the Latrobe Valley, says power was cut to her property overnight and the local creek is still rising.

"We've been ten years and we have three kilometres of creek running through our farm," she said.

"We've never seen water like it was last night around 5:00pm. It was just everywhere."

Robin, a resident of Swifts Creek, near Omeo, says rivers in the area are rising fast.

"It's really rocketing down," he said.

"We're just a kilometre north of Swifts Creek and the river is nearly as high as it was in 1998.

"It's right over our back fence and it is still rising and there is huge trees coming down."

Close call

A group of school children is stranded by floodwaters at a camp ground near Sale, but police say they are safe.

Ralph Barraclough from Target Creek, near Licola, had a close brush with disaster this morning.

He was driving on a dirt road to Licola, the whole side of the hill slipped away and took the road with it.

"I was sort of left sitting on about 45 degrees," he said.

"I reckon I would have beaten John Landy or Herb Elliott getting out of it.

"The Landrover is still sitting there at the moment and I think there's every chance it's going to end up on its roof."

The township of Tinamba, near Sale, is waiting to be inundated as authorities release water from the nearby Glenmaggie weir.

Authorities are worried about possible major flooding around Bairnsdale.

Deputy Premier Peter Ryan says emergency flood assistance grants are now available to people affected by the flooding.

Adults are entitled to $480 and children $240, up to a total of $1,200.

"If people need that emergency help, if they simply go to the incident control centre they will be able to be assisted there to enable them in turn to be able to access that money straight away," he said.







Topics: floods, disasters-and-accidents, traralgon-3844, buchan-3885, vic

First posted