Save articles for later
Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time.
Mallacoota, Bairnsdale and Sale are among the Gippsland towns on flood alert as heavy rainfall in Victoria’s east travels down swollen waterways while landslides cut off parts of the state.
Eleven watch-and-act alerts were active on Friday morning and Mallacoota remained isolated after a landslide the size of a house blocked the Mallacoota-Genoa Road about 8.30am on Thursday.
A map of the accumulated rainfall forecast for the 36 hours to 11pm on Thursday.Credit: Weatherzone
Authorities are assessing the road closure this morning.
East Gippsland Shire mayor Tom Crook said emergency services could get to Mallacoota if needed, but students outside the remote township couldn’t get to local school on Thursday and Friday.
“Mallacoota [locals] are pretty resilient bunch,” Crook told 3AW. “I’m sure we were all looking forward to a bit of late spring rain, but certainly not this much.”
“Some of our communities have actually seen double their average monthly totals just in the past 24 hours.”
Crook said he expected the township of Bemm River, home to 72 people according to the last census, would be cut off later on Friday as waterways continued to rise. Footage posted on social media on Thursday showed some inundation on the Mallacoota Inlet foreshore.
The State Emergency Service received 163 requests for assistance in the 24 hours to 9am on Friday. Most were for downed trees, but 11 related to flooding – with eight of those in the Gippsland region. Five callouts were for landslides across the state.
The Strzelecki Ranges locality of Balook, south of Traralgon, received 167 millimetres of rain – the highest rainfall total in Victoria over the past 24 hours to 9am.
Major flood warnings are active for the Genoa River (including Mallacoota), the Bemm River (between Orbost and Mallacoota), the Buchan River (north-west of Orbost), the Avon River (running through Stratford) and the Thomson River downstream of Wandocka (including Sale).
Maffra and Tinambra are also under a watch-and-act alert. Authorities are urging residents to move to higher ground after moderate flooding occurred on the Macalister River downstream of Lake Glenmaggie.
The Gippsland towns experienced inundation last month amid a patch of wild weather that included bushfires raging nearby days earlier.
Orbost is also under a watch-and-act warning as the Snowy River rises.
Rawson and Erica near Mount Baw Baw are still on alert for flooding, while the Thomson River upstream remains at elevated levels.
Melbourne is expected to receive less than five millimetres of rainfall on Friday. The Bureau of Meteorology forecasts the mercury would hit 19 degrees.
Despite recent rain, authorities warned parts of Victoria faced an elevated bushfire risk this summer after successive quiet seasons.
Overnight, the United Nations’ World Meteorological Organisation declared 2023 was the planet’s warmest year on record. Scientists warned in a study published in late October this record could fall, making 2023 the hottest year in the past 100,000 years.
Get the day’s breaking news, entertainment ideas and a long read to enjoy. Sign up to receive our Evening Edition newsletter here.
Most Viewed in National
From our partners
Source: Read Full Article