This week marks the anniversary of one of our community’s most challenging natural disasters in recent memory: the 2022 floods.
For some, last October was a spectacle.
It’s not every day you see your world figuratively turned upside down, or more literally, your town underwater.
Others, however, found themselves uprooted from their residences due to the floods, which caused damage to their properties and personal belongings.
Many residents of Greater Shepparton are still recovering from the impacts of the floods.
Shepparton Search and Rescue president Nacole Standfield said it was the group’s most extensive operation in a long time.
“In the eight days we were responding, 24/7 — we received over 1000 calls,” she said.
“That’s probably more than we would receive in a normal year.”
Search and Rescue began by pitching in with the sandbag effort, linking up with SES members, before shifting into an operational stance and responding to calls of distress.
SES Tatura unit controller Bec Gould said her team helped with the evacuation effort and emergency calls after sandbagging.
“A lot of us still have trauma from that experience,” she said.
“Just because of the devastation and what we saw the community go through.
“We can try our best, but we can’t be everywhere at once.”
Ms Gould said her unit learned a lot during the floods and had implemented new procedures.
She encouraged anyone and everyone to get involved with their local SES or Search and Rescue.
“Normally, during a non-disaster, it’s filled with lots of helpful and rewarding experiences, and then it just means we’re better equipped to deal with a major event when it happens,” Ms Gould said.
Greater Shepparton City Council acting director of community Karen Liversidge said initial assessments indicated over 4200 properties were potentially impacted in Greater Shepparton.
She said over 6000 secondary (follow-up) assessments were conducted by council, indicating up to 900 properties were damaged at a level varying from total or partial destruction to a level where residents could safely inhabit dwellings.
Council said it made a significant contribution to the emergency response via the Incident Control Centre and elsewhere, supporting the lead agency, the SES, to fulfil the following functions:
- Logistics co-ordination.
- Asset protection strategies, including sandbagging and pumping.
- Communications and engagement.
- Establishment and management of emergency relief centres in Shepparton and Tatura.
- Mosquito management, food safety and animal management activities related to the emergency.
- Completion of secondary impact assessments.
- Recovery co-ordination at the municipal level.
Council also supported community agencies, including but not limited to FoodShare, GV Cares, Ethnic Council of Shepparton and District and Rumbalara Aboriginal Co-operative during the October floods.
Numerous towns and regions within our municipality bore the brunt of the impact, including Murchison, Mooroopna, Old Toolamba, south-west and north-west Shepparton (near the rivers), Bunbartha, Undera, Arcadia, Coomboona, Kialla, Kialla West, Mooroopna North, Orrvale, Shepparton East and Shepparton North.
During the flood’s zenith, the Peter Ross-Edwards Causeway, the primary river passage connecting Shepparton and Mooroopna, was shuttered.
Council said this left thousands of residents stranded, casting a glaring spotlight on the urgent necessity of establishing a secondary, flood-resistant river crossing for Greater Shepparton.