Supermarket shelves have been emptied and petrol outlets run dry as residents of flood-ravaged communities to the east, west and south of Kyabram have flooded to the town along with other neighbouring townships, Stanhope and Tongala.
The three towns became the target of the desperate shoppers as Kyabram become somewhat of a “island paradise’’ in comparison to the flood-devastated towns of Shepparton, Mooroopna, Rochester and Echuca.
People from the neighbouring towns of Tatura (where there was reportedly significant power outages), Mooroopna and, more recently Echuca, represented a significant portion of those who used the Campaspe Shire towns as a point of refuge and source of supplies after their own towns had been affected by power outages and were cut off from major shopping centres.
The usually sleepy Sunday morning town became a hive of activity as motorists from towns situated in every direction descended on the somewhat unaffected by floods township for fuel and groceries.
At the Woolworths fuel outlet on Friday an incident involving a motorist driving off while the hose was still in the tank of the vehicle meant discounted unleaded petrol was unavailable.
The incident left the outlet unable to use several of its unleaded hoses, despite in-ground tanks having plenty of fuel.
People from Mooroopna and Tatura made up a bulk of the queue which, at one point, stretched almost the length of Bradley Street between Union and Church streets.
The fuel outlet was not the only site in great demand as bread and meat, along with fruit and vegetables were completely sold out at the Woolworths supermarket.
At the BP Allan Street fuel outlet the queues were of similar length, the town’s only other fuel outlet closed due to operators of the business being unable to staff the facility.
On Sunday it had signs on fuel pumps and the store explaining that the business would be closed until further notice because of the flood.
At Rochester the flood levels of 2011 were surpassed at the town gauge just after 9pm on Friday night.
Friday was the second day of a five-day flood episode that split the town in half and saw, in a little over 24 hours, the level of the Campaspe River in town rise from 111.23 to 115.66 – the height recorded just after midnight on Friday night.
Following the January 2011 flood in Rochester, a Flood Management Plan was completed by the Campaspe Shire in consultation with the Rochester community.
The plan determined the potential impact of a range of flood events on Rochester and this information was used to improve flood warnings and enabled planning and emergency response actions in Rochester to be more effective.
The Campaspe River passed the 115.4 at the Rochester Town Gauge early on Friday evening. This was the level reached in January 2011.
The major flood level of 114.5 was passed early on Friday morning.
The minor flood level at Rochester’s town guage is 113.00, moderate flooding is 114.00 and the major flood level is 114.50
At 5.15am on Monday (October 17) the river had fallen to 114.52, having been 115.66 at 12.14am on Saturday and 113.71 at 1.12am on Friday. On Thursday at 12.15pm the level was 111.23.
– A Bureau of Meteorology report indicated the Goulburn River had peaked at Shepparton early on Monday at 12.06m, 0.3m less than the 1974 flood level.
No further river rises are expected at Shepparton where the river peaked at a level similar to the 1974 flood peak of 12.09m.
Rises were still occurring at McCoys Bridge on Monday, which reached 10.85m in 1974.
Major flooding was still occurring at Murchison on Monday.
– Goulburn River water levels stabilised in Seymour on Saturday, October 15, between 7.28m and 7.31m according to the Bureau of Meteorology.
Although the river was no longer rising it was still classed as major flood level and remained this way until Monday.
On Friday, October 15, the Eildon Weir was at 100.8 per cent capacity and released 38,000 megalitres of water.
The water took eight hours to reach Seymour contributing to the slow decline in flood water on Saturday.
Flooding at Benalla overnight on Thursday, October 13, led to an evacuation order in the CBD, but levels did not reach the 1993 levels as originally feared.
Floodwaters were beginning to recede in Benalla on Saturday, allowing residents to assess the damage.