Flash flooding has hit Geelong as storms rumbled across the state to Melbourne overnight and postponed a prominent spring racing carnival event, while towns in Victoria’s north remain on high alert as floodwaters continue to climb.
The Patchell bridge over the Loddon River, in Kerang, has been closed due to the floods.Credit:Eddie Jim
The SES issued a watch and act alert for flash flooding across the entirety of Geelong late on Friday night as the state’s central-west bore the brunt of the thunderstorm activity. Lightning also forced the Group 1 Manikato Stakes at Moonee Valley to be delayed until Saturday.
Despite the storms in central areas, heavy falls missed the flooded areas in Victoria’s north. Emergency warnings for Echuca and Kerang still remain active, however, as the Murray and Loddon rivers continue to rise – the latter is expected to peak today.
Kerang locals are growing increasingly confident the town will avoid severe flooding after the Loddon River at nearby Appin South – often a barometer for flooding in Kerang – peaked on Friday without causing significant inundation.
The Murray River at Echuca reached major flood levels on Friday with the peak expected as early as Sunday. But Miriam Bradbury from the Bureau of Meteorology said the river is “currently sitting very close to that peak level at the moment”.
Bradbury said there were still some showers over Victoria’s flooded north on Friday, but they would ease on Saturday before a second front crossed the state on Sunday and early next week.
“This is expected to have further impacts on our flooded areas unfortunately and may cause some further river rises,” Bradbury said.
“We did see a number of high falls [on Friday], mostly in the more southern parts. So down towards Maryborough, Ballarat, Bendigo rather than further north towards Kerang, Rochester and Echuca areas.”
An emergency warning telling residents it’s too late to leave Barmah and Lower Moira on the Murray River near Echuca remains active.
NSW SES Chief Superintendent Ken Murphy said he was concerned about flooding at Moama – which is connected to the Victoria town of Echuca across the Murray River – but Friday’s storms had now also caused 4000 people in the north-western NSW town of Moree to be warned to evacuate.
“Hopefully there’s no more severe thunderstorms that impact that area. We had some very, very heavy rainfall there yesterday – falls in excess of 100mm across that area there,” Murphy said on the ABC’s Weekend Breakfast program on Saturday morning.
It is also too early to return to Bunbartha – north of Shepparton – while Boort in Victoria’s north-west is within a large emergency warning area due to Loddon River flooding.
Victorian SES chief Tim Wiebusch also warned residents of flood-prone Rochester on Friday that coming wet weather could bring renewed moderate flooding to the town.
Heavy rain and lightning hit The Valley racecourse in Moonee Ponds on Friday night.Credit:Getty Images
The SES reported 331 calls for assistance over the last 24 hours to 6am on Saturday morning – including one rescue in the western Melbourne suburb of Altona.
One hundred of the callouts were related to flash flooding, with most coming from Geelong and Hamilton in the state’s west.
The heaviest falls overnight were recorded in Sheoaks – a small area 47km west of Melbourne between Geelong and Ballarat – where 85 millimetres fell.
Melbourne’s highest totals were at the city’s airport, which recorded 31 millimetres, while Geelong itself received 45 millimetres.
Bradbury said Melbourne’s CBD and eastern suburbs avoided the heaviest falls on Friday, but there was a chance of some storms developing on Saturday morning, before the front moves east and the threat of heavy rain eases.
A severe weather warning for the Mallee, Northern Country, North Central and Wimmera areas to the west and north of Melbourne was cancelled early on Friday morning as thunderstorms subsided.
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