Victoria weather: hundreds call for help and dozens rescued as intense rain and storms hit southern states
Hundreds of people have called for help in Victoria and 26 have had to be rescued as heavy rainfall inundates the state, with the Bureau of Meteorology warning of further flash flooding and thunderstorms in southern Australia.
The persistent rain continued to defy predictions of a dry El Niño summer, with downpours that began late Saturday and ramped up through Sunday and into Monday morning.
Almost 700 requests for assistance were made to VicSES in the 24 hours to 6am Monday morning.
Out of that number, 396 were for flooding, 139 were for fallen trees and 89 were for building damage.
The Bendigo area alone made 156 requests for assistance, while Kilmore made 72.
There were 26 flood rescues, including 12 people rescued from Goornong, a village near Bendigo, between 1am and 4am on Monday morning.
The rain band mostly hit central Victoria and parts of inland New South Wales, senior BoM meteorologist Miriam Bradbury said. There were more moderate falls in inland Queensland and parts of the Northern Territory.
“It is a really extensive range, extending through all of those states,” Bradbury said.
A severe weather warning covered northern and north-eastern Victoria on Monday morning, as well as parts of southern New South Wales.
Heavy to locally intense rainfall and flash flooding was expected to ease by Monday afternoon, “but that doesn’t mean the rain will be over, it just means those extremely high rain rates are less likely”.
Isolated heavy falls were also expected with thunderstorms on Monday. As of 9am, Swan Hill in Victoria was the only area with a warning for severe thunderstorms.
Thunderstorm warnings were issued alongside a number of flood warnings across Victoria.
“Catchments across Victoria are already responding to this rainfall with rivers rising,” Bradbury said. “We have a flood watch covering large parts of the state.”
Campaspe River near Bendigo had an active major flood warning. Moderate flood warnings were extended to catchments in the north-east of the state, the King River and 50 Mile Creek.
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As rain moved through the system, flash flooding could cut off roads and block storm drains, Bradbury said. At the same time, riverine flooding could affect waterways and could persist for days.
NSW SES spokesperson Brett Koschel said three storm crews and two flood rescue teams had been brought to the state’s south from elsewhere on Sunday to assist if necessary.
“In the last 24 hours we’ve been making preparations for the forecast weather,” he said.
“We’ve had some community members out there preparing their properties, and had those requests for sandbags so they’ve been able to prepare their properties as best they can.”
In South Australia, the BoM said thunderstorms continued to move to the state’s south and east on Sunday and were forecast to head towards eastern border districts on Monday.
Rain will contract towards the east coast, bringing severe storm risk to Sydney and the Illawarra and Newcastle areas on Tuesday. That is forecast to continue north-east into Queensland through Wednesday and Thursday.
“That is good news for Victoria and southern NSW because [they] will start to see patchy showers and clear skies through Tuesday and Wednesday,” Bradbury said.