History: The waterfall which sprung up as floodwater flowed over the top of the levee near Aquatic Reserve in Echuca on Saturday.
Photo by
Steve Huntley
Echuca is in the midst of the town’s largest flood in more than 150 years.
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The Murray River at Echuca Wharf crept past the 1916 figure of 94.79m (AHD — above sea level) at 3pm on Saturday and as of 4pm Sunday, it had risen to 94.84m (AHD).
The Bureau of Meteorology has forecast the Murray to peak near 94.9m on. Other reports have the river, with futher rain, pasing 95.2m.
SES chief officer operations Tim Wiebusch said the SES was continuing to see a forecast peak of around 95m,” he said.
Surrounded: A home near Echuca Village that has been surrounded by floodwaters.
Photo by
Bransen Gibson
“It is still slowly rising.
“Twenty homes needed to be door-knocked on the weekend at Echuca Village as we saw some seepage through the levee there.
“We’re advising people that an evacuation message is still current, we can’t emphasise enough while those levees are holding for this point in time, they do continue to be a vulnerability for that community. Our advice is to evacuate rather than becoming isolated in that area.”
The Murray has not been this high since the flood of 1867 (95.34m AHD).
The Murray River at Torrumbarry was 7.83m at 3pm on Sunday, with the moderate flood warning issued last week still in place for Leitchville, Gunbower, Patho and Torrrumbarry.
Major flood warnings are in place for Glyn Rd and O’Dwyer Rd in Wharparilla.
Mr Wiebusch said the Campaspe River remained at a moderate flood level in Echuca (94.5m AHD on the weekend) and provided an insight into the situation at Rochester.
“We saw that peak (on the Campaspe River) occur last week,” he said.
“It is back at minor flood levels and the community is preparing.
“We could see it at the upper end of moderate, potentially lower end of major flooding.
“If it did get to the major level, potentially somewhere in the range of 114.6 to 114.9m, which is quite a bit lower than we saw in the most recent event.
“It could impact around 50 properties if we see that upper end of rainfall in the early parts of the week.”
Emergency warnings remain in place for parts of Moama, Mathoura East and Picnic Point.
V/Line said there will be no train or coach services operating between Bendigo/Epsom and Echuca until further notice.
– The massive clean-up of flood damaged property kicked into full gear in Shepparton, Mooroopna and surrounds at the weekend.
That was amid reports that there would be no second river peak at Shepparton.
Services are also returning, some more slowly than others, and advice on the current flood and clean-up situation continues to come to light.
Waterway: Residential streets in Mooroopna, including Emma Street, were still flooded late on Sunday as the clean up operation continued to be hindered by flood water.
The Murchison Bridge has opened to locals only — and then only light vehicles and foot traffic, with the extent of flood damage to the bridge yet to be determined.
Three impact assessment crews were in Shepparton today, and will continue to assess flood-damaged homes across the Goulburn Valley.
There was good news for Barmah and the Lower Moira area, with a predicted peak of 7.6m not expected.
However, an evacuation warning remains in place for Barmah and Lower Moira, and it is too late to leave the community in these areas.
A moderate flood warning remains in place for the Numurkah and Nathalia areas following minor flooding along the Broken Creek at Walsh’s Bridge, but river levels are unlikely to reach 2010 levels.
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