The local hospital's 65 patients were earlier evacuated, including 24 acute and aged care patients taken to Bendigo Hospital. The State Emergency Service was predicting that eight in 10 houses could go under water by early today. It warned the floodwaters were not expected to recede for 48 hours. By yesterday afternoon, more than 1000 properties across Victoria had been submerged and the SES had responded to 5000 requests for assistance. It had conducted more than 50 flood rescues, 30 of which involved people in vehicles. A woman was rescued at 4am yesterday after spending the night on her tractor at the tiny town of Teddywaddy, north of Charlton. SES director of operations Trevor White said 12 towns along the Wimmera, Loddon, Avoca and Campaspe rivers had been issued with evacuation advice yesterday and a similar number of communities were likely to have to evacuate over the next few days. They included Donald, Serpentine, Charlton, Durham Ox, Boort Lake, Culgoa, Bridgewater and Carisbrook. Skipton was day cut in half yesterday by the normally tiny Emu Creek. Mr White warned that the worst of the flooding was yet to be felt. ''There are many, many people living in the smaller rural communities that are likely to be impacted over the next week,'' he said. ''We will continue to see extensive rural flooding over the next four to five days and we will see people isolated.''

The Wimmera River at Horsham is expected to peak between 3.75 and 3.85 metres tomorrow night, higher than floods in September 1988 and possibly mirroring the historic August 1909 floods. Mayor Michael Ryan said locals were watching the rising floodwaters with trepidation. ''What's amazing people is the fact that we're sitting here on the 15th of January … how can this be happening? We don't live in Queensland, we live in Victoria; it's bizarre. We had fires two years ago so it's bloody hard to believe we're having floods.'' Charlton, halfway to Mildura from Melbourne in the state's north-west, had been cut off. More than 200 properties along the Avoca River were under water and 200 threatened. Local man Garry Larmour was incredulous: ''Beautiful morning, sun's out, no cloud in the sky, lots of mosquitoes - and lots of water,'' he told ABC radio. In fact, western and central Victoria has already received the region's highest monthly rainfall on record - in just the first 14 days of January. Over the past week, the weather station at Maryborough recorded 229 millimetres, by far the most it had seen in its 132 years. Inglewood had 216 millimetres and Kyneton 263. The Jeparit station on the Wimmera recorded 161 millimetres of rain in 24 hours. ''Victoria is experiencing one of its worst flood events in its history,'' said Kevin Parkyn, senior forecaster at the Bureau of Meteorology.

''It's been a week in which rainfall totals have been smashed in parts of Victoria … far worse than we experienced in September, with four to five times the number of properties impacted.'' Severe rural inundation across the state is expected for days, if not weeks. Glenorchy, Kerang and Casterton are expected to flood. Near Ballarat, Creswick, Clunes, Beaufort and Miners Rest have also been hit. Visiting the area yesterday, Premier Ted Baillieu said there were still major risks to towns. ''It's arguably at least as bad as September but probably, being the second time, it's a harder hit,'' he said. ''Obviously Queensland's been the focus for a couple of weeks but we've got our own issues.'' At Bridgewater, north-west of Bendigo, the Loddon peaked at eight metres, 2.5 metres above the major flood warning level. Dozens of homes, holiday accommodation, the post office and police station went under. But lone police officer, Senior Constable Mick Balazs, joked that the hotel was the priority. ''The main thing is, we get the pub up and running … If we get that open it will keep the spirits up.'' The flooding in the Campaspe threatens Echuca, where it meets the swollen Murray. The peak, expected later today, is likely to reach levels not seen since 1916.

People remaining in Rochester were running out of water. Resident Elisha Bamford said she was expecting the worst when she returns to her Echuca Road home - which is not covered by flood insurance. ''There will be a lot of heartbreak in the town,'' Ms Bamford said. "No one really expected to see water on this [northern] side of town; it's come as a huge shock.'' Ms Bamford said she hoped the smaller Victorian towns would not be forgotten in the shadow of the huge Queensland floods. ''It's absolutely terrible over in Queensland but with the river not yet at its peak, it's going to get a lot worse here for many people.'' Prime Minister Julia Gillard said yesterday she was ''obviously very concerned'' about the circumstances of Victorians battling floodwaters and wanted ''to be able to say hello to people in those circumstances''. Melbourne and its surrounds got off relatively lightly but didn't escape the flooding entirely. The Anglers Hotel on the Maribyrnong received one of its regular soakings when the river peaked at 2.21 metres at 7.30am yesterday, flooding the public bar. Fruit growers in Bacchus Marsh are assessing the damage after the Werribee and Lerderderg rivers broke their banks following heavy rain. ''It basically cut a path through our orchard; we got up to two metres of depth,'' said apple grower Nick Dellios, who lost about 60 per cent of his fruit.

Police warned that people canoeing or kayaking on swollen rivers were putting extra pressure on emergency services' stretched resources. Four people have been pulled to safety over the past 24 hours when their vessels have capsized. The water police were called yesterday to Mount Dryden where a 63-year-old Stawell woman had spent 1½ hours clinging to a tree after canoeing the flooded area near Lake Lonsdale. Loading And on Friday, a 42-year-old Ballarat man and his 14-year-old son were pulled from swollen Burrumbeet Creek after their kayak hit a tree and capsized. Late last night, VicRoads advised that all routes between Melbourne and Adelaide were closed due to flooding, including the Western Highway, Hamilton Highway and Princes Highway.