Greater Shepparton City Council has set up a sandbag collection site at the Shepparton Showgrounds in preparation for the flood warnings received over the past few days.
Site co-ordinator Tom Zampaglione said the team received the notification on Sunday, January 7 to prepare sandbags for the community.
“That’s why we’re starting today (Monday), in case we get inundated with (the) public,” he said.
“We want to be on the front foot, ready to go, so they can just come in and grab them.”
On Monday, January 8, at 3pm, 2500 sandbags were filled, and 400 had been distributed.
Council workers and contractors are running the collection site, open to the public until 8pm on Monday.
The site will also be open over the next few days, depending on the severity of the situation.
Mr Zampaglione was involved in sandbagging for the October 2022 floods.
“It was chaos last time, everyone wanted them (all at once), so we’re getting prepared (now),” he said.
“Tuesday, I think you’ll see a lot more people coming in to get sandbags.
“Once they see it rising that quickly.”
Although he doesn’t know the extremity of this flood yet, Mr Zampaglione said people needed to remain vigilant.
“By the time all the water comes down or starts to come down (from the mountains), I think Wednesday (we’ll) see the rivers come up fairly quickly,” he said.
“People need to keep an eye on all the warnings, keep up to date with the apps and the river level heights and go from there.”
Keep an eye on our rolling coverage of the current weather situation at sheppnews.com.au