Authorities say major flood threat in East Gippsland
Communities in Victoria's north and east have had a sleepless night with homes and properties under threat from swollen rivers. Attention now turns to the east Gippsland town of sale, where an emergency warning remains in place this morning.
Transcript
00:00 It's been a dramatic week for people here in Gippsland.
00:04 Just over the weekend there were bushfires that burnt through thousands of hectares of
00:07 land, then heavy rainfall and now flooding.
00:11 As you can see I'm standing at the Port of Sale which is where there's an emergency warning
00:15 at the moment.
00:16 The street behind me has actually been completely inundated.
00:19 This is the street that divides the town's library and the Port of Sale itself.
00:24 There is an emergency warning at the moment here for people to evacuate living around
00:29 the Thompson River.
00:31 People are being urged to seek higher ground and those that have already evacuated are
00:34 being told that it's too early to return home.
00:37 The levels are currently moderate, it's at 3.2 metres but we are expecting it to rise
00:42 to a major flood level later this morning.
00:45 We did speak to the SES earlier, here's what they had to say.
00:48 We're saying to members of the community out there, wait until it's safe to return and
00:53 we'll advise you of that.
00:54 We're doing some initial assessments of damages out there.
00:57 We know three homes have been inundated.
01:00 The next area of watch for us is that Port of Sale area as the Thompson River flows through
01:06 there.
01:07 We're expecting it to reach its peak of about 4 metres later today and we've advised residents
01:13 in those low-lying areas to relocate early yesterday in readiness for those waters to
01:19 go through.
01:20 So we're monitoring that now and asking those residents to stay away until the floodwaters
01:25 have passed through.
01:27 So those people who are evacuating are being urged to register at the Relief Centre which
01:32 is in Sale.
01:33 It's at the Gippsland Regional Sporting Complex.
01:37 Last night there was one person that stayed there overnight.
01:39 They were from Sale, evacuated their home and there were five people we were told that
01:44 registered yesterday as well.
01:46 Many of those have been relocated to alternative accommodation.
01:50 There is other moderate flooding across the state as well of course.
01:54 We are concerned about Wangaratta, Shepparton, Turalgon and Bairnsdale.
02:00 We also were told that the SCS had to rescue two males this morning at 6.30am who drove
02:06 into floodwater and had to climb onto their roofs which is where they were rescued from.
02:11 So authorities are urging people to make sure that they are checking the Vic Emergency app
02:16 for any updates on advice and the Vic Traffic app if they are planning on travelling just
02:21 to ensure that they aren't going through any road closures.
02:25 Natasha, are there any updates on the major flooding from yesterday?
02:32 Yes, so one of the major floods that we saw yesterday was of Macalester River.
02:38 That runs off the back of the Glenmaggie Dam which was releasing thousands of megalitres
02:43 of water and that runs into towns including to Namba, to Namba West and Newry.
02:48 Those towns were being urged to evacuate as well.
02:52 That emergency warning has been downgraded but people are being told that they shouldn't
02:57 return home yet, that they should wait for advice from the SCS.
03:02 We have been hearing as well that there were a few homes in that sort of region that were
03:07 inundated.
03:08 We're not sure exactly what the damage is at the moment but most of the damage was to
03:13 front yards and back yards being flooded.
03:15 Most of the homes were elevated slightly but there has been some controversy with Southern
03:20 Rural Water.
03:21 They are the ones that managed that Glenmaggie Dam which was releasing water into the Macalester
03:25 River.
03:26 A lot of farmers and locals have been saying that Southern Rural Water should have been
03:29 better prepared for the heavy rainfall, that they knew that the Weather Bureau was forecasting
03:34 heavy rain and that the water should have been released from the lake earlier.
03:38 But Southern Rural Water has told the ABC that they did closely follow modelling and
03:43 that the safety of the community was their top priority.
03:46 [BLANK_AUDIO]