Widespread major flooding is occurring in Greater Shepparton, with the peak of the Goulburn River expected early on Monday morning.
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The river level was expected to exceed 12.1m at 6pm last night — above the 1974 flood level of 12.09m — and could peak at around 12.2m.
Large parts of Mooroopna and Shepparton were inundated at the time of writing, with more than 8000 homes predicted to be impacted.
The causeway between Mooroopna and Shepparton, as well as the Goulburn Valley Hwy at the Broken River crossing, are closed, cutting off suburbs from each other.
At 12.2m, 7300 properties are expected to be surrounded or inundated by flood waters with around 2500 properties flooding above floor level.
If it goes up to 12.3m, 1600 more homes could be under threat of major flooding.
Locations north of Shepparton, including Numurkah, are only predicted to see minor to moderate flooding.
Major flooding was peaking on Sunday afternoon at Orrvale at 8.25m, and was expected to remain above the major flood level of 7.9m into today.
Major flooding at Kialla West peaked at 7.2m on Saturday night
Major flooding has peaked at 12m at Murchison, reaching significantly higher than the May 1974 flood.
Major flooding has eased at Seymour with moderate flooding continuing.
Ensure you stay across alerts on the Vic Emergency app, the Victoria SES website or call 132 500 if you urgently need assistance. Call 000 in an emergency and remember to never drive through or enter floodwaters.
After an extraordinary level of demand on the Goulburn Broken Community Flood Intelligence Portal, causing the website to crash, technology providers have worked to stabilise the link.
The portal shows where across the region the floods will affect. Access it here: https://www.gbcma.vic.gov.au/.../gbfloodintelligenceportal
Powercor has provided an update on its service to homes and businesses across the region.
As of 4.30pm on Sunday, the organisation confirmed it had been able restore power to 1324 customers, mainly around the Tatura and Mooroopna area.
This is down from the 5954 reported outages from its media release at 12.30pm, meaning the current number of customers effected is 4630.
The zone substation supplies about 10,688 homes and businesses in the Mooroopna, Tatura, Ardmona, Murchison, Dhurringile, Toolamba, Byrneside and surrounding towns.
Powercor also took the opportunity to remind all customers that have just had their power restored to try and keep their resumption down to essential use.
Temporary power outages were expected overnight in Shepparton and Kialla to manage overloads.
All treated tap water supplied by Goulburn Valley Water remained safe to drink — Shepparton included — as of the time of writing.
The GVW treatment plant is still open, water is fully treated and meets all quality regulations.
There were no boil water notices in place for any towns supplied by GVW.
Water quality teams are monitoring the sewer systems in low-lying areas which continue to be affected by flooding inundation — particularly in areas surrounding Gordon Drive Kialla, Rea/Dunrobin St, Shepparton and Broken River Dve, Shepparton.
It is recommended to store 20 to 40 litres of water in containers for drinking in preparation in case an emergency does occur.
Greater Shepparton City Council has emergency relief centres set up at the Shepparton Showgrounds and Tatura Park.
You can collect sandbags at the Shepparton Showgrounds.
The Salvation Army touched down at St George’s Road Victory Park in a helicopter on Sunday evening to provide crucial supplies to the relief centres.
The City of Greater Shepparton Mayor Shane Sali was there to accept the drop.
Cr Sali said the drop includes essential supplies of nappies, sheets, blankets, pillows and “all the things that people require when they’ve had to leave under emergency circumstances”.
“Every bit of this important supply is heavily needed, we really appreciate the Salvation Army coming forward and supporting us,” he said.
Cr Sali said there were already around 200 people at the McIntosh relief centre as of 5pm Sunday.
Many businesses and services are closed, and will be for some time.
This includes Shepparton FoodShare.
Shepparton FoodShare executive officer Glenn Peric said the organisation doesn’t know when it will be able to open the factory as it is inundated with flood waters currently.
“Currently, the factory is flooded, and we don’t have access to the factory, so at this stage, we will not be open until the water recedes, which could be up to a week,” Mr Peric said.
Many schools have alerted their students and parents that they will be closed today, and likely tomorrow.
On Sunday afternoon volunteers helped sandbag Goulburn Valley Health.
Head to sheppnews.com.au for the latest updates on the situation.
Shepparton News editor