This week marks one year since the devastating floods of October 2022 began.
State Member for Northern Victoria Gaelle Broad said many people still needed help to recover.
“I’m very aware that with this week’s rain and water levels rising in Lake Eppalock and Lake Eildon, local communities are anxious that history may repeat itself,” she said, speaking in state parliament.
Ms Broad is part of the Environment and Planning Committee conducting an inquiry into the floods and has heard first-hand accounts of the trauma suffered by the people involved.
The Nationals MP thanked everyone who made a submission to the inquiry.
“At public hearings, we’ve heard directly from local communities,” she said.
“In Rochester, over 900 homes were flooded.
“Hundreds of people are still living in caravans, looking for a place to dump the contents of their camp toilet each morning.
“In Undera, locals door-knocked neighbours to raise funds to fix broken levee banks the state government built.
“At Echuca village, the CFA was brought in to assist without proper training or direction and told no sandbags were available.
“In Seymour, we heard there was no warning when Goulburn-Murray Water released thousands of megalitres of water overnight, and farmers were left desperately trying to save stock swimming in flood waters.”
She said across the region, communities and neighbours rallied together as roads and bridges were ripped apart; many were cut off and left stranded, with no access to food, supermarkets, fuel or power, and had no internet or mobile coverage.
“Individuals did their best to enact their own flood plan, but thousands of people were caught off guard with the lack of warnings and flood waters that rose much higher than predicted,” she said.
“It’s clear from the evidence presented that the sheer scale of this disaster required a much higher level of statewide co-ordination and response.”
The committee’s final report is due in June next year.
“My hope is that the recommendations put forward will help our state be better prepared for floods of this scale in future,” Ms Broad said.