Mildura to flood later and higher than expected

The peak of flooding in Mildura has been pushed back again, but the SES says it will be higher than expected.

The peak of flooding in Mildura has been pushed back again, but the SES says it will be higher than expected.

Mildura SES incident controller Russell Manning said the Murray would now peak at 38.4m AHD, but not until next week.

“The latest is that the peak should now be later next week … around (December) 15 to 17, and that’ll be about 100mm higher than the previous 38.3 meters AHD, ” he said.

“The worst case scenario they’ve presented to us is ... 38.4m AHD maximum.”

Mr Manning said while levees were built with some allowance of levels to change, the SES would be doing work to ensure their integrity.

“We are revisiting all our planned areas where communities could be impacted but in terms of what we‘ve already done, with levee construction, there’s a fair bit of capacity for rises,” he said.

According to the SES, the highwater level is also predicted to stick around for quite some time.

“We’re expecting (the water) to stick around for about that ten-day period, ten plus days, around that Christmas to New Year period then hopefully we’ll see some relief but there is a lot of water coming down the Murray,” Mr Manning said.

He urged residents to consider their safety and no climb on levee banks as it damaged the integrity of the bank and put people’s homes at risk.

“We’re really concerned about reports we’ve had of people driving around road closure signs, and they’re driving on top of levee banks,” he said.

“The integrity of those levees is really critical, for the protection of all those residents in Flora Avenue.

“We are pleading for people to stop doing this.”

For those affected by the floods, Mildura council has set up a flood relief centre at the Alfred Deakin Centre along Deakin Avenue.

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