Floodwaters have forced thousands to evacuate their homes in parts of suburban Melbourne and regional Victoria on Friday morning after heavy rain overnight. The rain has stopped but floodwaters continue to rise.
A number of low-lying streets near the west bank of the Maribrynong River in the inner-city Melbourne suburb of Maribyrnong flooded on Friday and about 30 homes were ordered to evacuate at about 5am.
The first images of the suburb at sunrise showed a number of homes partly submerged and the river overflowing.
This was Benalla earlier today as taken by a friend. Has probably risen since then. I’ve seen it right up to the top of the Art Gallery supports. pic.twitter.com/wnxWbGCJPU
The Goulburn River peaked at 8.26m overnight, and the town centre is underwater this morning. That flood level has broken the record set back in 1974. Chatting to @AusTodayListnr and @StevePriceMedia from my home town later this morning. pic.twitter.com/To4JjBRnLZ
Melbourne’s Yarra River and Merri Creek also flooded in some areas, cutting off walking and bike paths.
Outside Melbourne, the worst flood-affected towns were in north-eastern Victoria.
Victoria’s north-east received 200 millimetres of rain by midnight Thursday and other parts of the state received between 50 and 70 millimetres.
Residents of rural towns Wedderburn and Benalla were urged to leave at about 1am and 3am respectively.
People living and camping near Wedderburn were told to evacuate due to a dam fault at Skinners Flat Reservoir. called it a “significant flood emergency” and said the and send strong, fast-moving waters along the Calder Highway through the township.
A major flood warning was issued shortly after for residents between Broken River and Benalla.
“In the 24 hours to 1am Friday, widespread rainfall totals up to 120 millimetres have been observed across the Broken River catchment,” .
Vic Emergency management commissioner said 120 flood rescues were conducted across the state on Friday morning as of 7am “and it seems to be going up by the minute”.
“At this point in time, importantly, we don’t have any missing persons out there, no reports of fatalities or serious injuries,” Crisp said.
“Each of these rescues is taking our emergency services workers away from what they should be doing to support the more vulnerable in our community.”
The State Emergency Service issued evacuation orders for the town of Rochester just after 5pm on Thursday and warned between 250 and 450 properties would be “directly impacted by flooding”. At least 700 are expected to be isolated due to floodwaters.
Residents who remained in the lowest-lying areas were told this morning it was “too late to leave” and were told to take shelter “in the highest location possible”.
Carisbrook and Seymour residents were also ordered to leave later on Thursday evening.
About 187 properties in Seymour were expected to be inundated and a further 279 to be isolated.
“It’s the biggest that we’ve seen in the area. We had floods in ’94, but nothing like this,” one Seymour resident told Nine News on Friday morning.
The SES received more than 2000 requests for help by Thursday afternoon. Most were due to flash flooding, as well as fallen trees.
Premier addressed reporters just before 9am Monday and said the flooding event was “far from over”.
“There’s a little bit more rainfall but as that weather event passes through the real challenge is waters continuing to rise and more and more houses being inundated, more and more communities being closed off, becoming isolated, then of course we move to clean up and all of those issues,” he said.
The risk of flooding is expected to worsen through Friday morning as water from Victoria’s upper catchments flows downstream to Melbourne.
Andrews said one-off payments of $560 per adult and $280 per child were available to affected households to meet immediate and essential needs, like emergency shelter, food, clothing or personal items. The payments are available via .
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