As many centres across northern Victoria start their clean up, or brace for their own imminent flood event, the Moira Shire Council is hoping it can avoid an emergency to the same extent.
A swollen Murray River laps at Cobram’s levee system, a temporary levee bank has been deployed in Nathalia to hold back the Broken Creek, some residential areas of Yarrawonga are under pressure, and no doubt Numurkah, and rural areas in between, will be watching rainfall forecasts with some trepidation after experiencing the devastation of the 2012 flood.
Moira Shire Council infrastructure services director Josh Lewis said residents should keep themselves informed on a situation that could change quickly.
Of the ongoing flood threat, Mr Lewis said riverine flooding remained the major concern.
“The largest impact to our residents is likely to be riverine floods as a result of the heavy rainfall, we are closely monitoring all river levels and receiving frequent updates from the Incident Control Centre,” Mr Lewis said.
“The areas of concern are the Broken Creek, the lower reaches of the Goulburn River and the inflow into the Murray from the Ovens River.
“This may impact the towns of Numurkah and Nathalia, so our focus is to understand what that looks like.
“Unfortunately, some of our neighbouring councils have been severely impacted, so we’re offering support to co-ordinate resources and offer relief where we can.”
Mr Lewis said the council was also working hard to repair roads in the shire damaged by the significant levels of rainfall in recent months.
“We’re asking the community to report any road hazards, including water or trees over the road, so we can get our crews out there and make it safe,” he said.
Mr Lewis asked residents for patience and understanding while council staff work to repair damaged roads.
“We know the conditions of some of our council roads are getting worse and we understand the community concern,” he said.
“We want the community to know that we’re managing it, we’re looking at interim and permanent fixes.
“Our teams are working extremely hard to ensure the safety of our residents, but because of the weather conditions it is going to continue to get worse.”
Council staff are patrolling roads to check on their condition, but encourage residents to report any damage they see via the council website: https://eservices.moira.vic.gov.au/eservice/start.do
For flood emergency support and sandbagging inquires phone SES on 132 500 or check: https://www.ses.vic.gov.au/plan-and-stay-safe/sandbag-guide
To check warnings in your areas, download the VicEmergency App or visit the website: https://emergency.vic.gov.au/respond/
For information on river heights refer to the Bureau of Meteorology website: http://www.bom.gov.au/vic/flood/rain_river.shtml