Dog spent 24 hours on table in flooded Melbourne home

Missy’s owners were forced to flee during floods in Melbourne on Friday. It meant the staffy was left to fend for herself and she did just that.

It was a frightening and confusing 24 hours for Missy.

The staffy from Maribyrnong was left behind when its owners left home at 6am on Friday as floodwaters from the swollen Maribyrnong River poured onto main roads and into homes.

They thought they would be able to come back to get her but were blocked from returning.

On Saturday, her owner Ali Ulfet returned home to find her safe but shaken on a table inside the flooded home.

“She’s been here overnight so we’ve come back and grabbed her this morning. Luckily she’s fine. She found a high place to rest and was safe,” Ulfet told Nine News.

He said the water was so high that the dog would have felt it lapping at her feet while she tried to stay dry on the table.

Sweet girl Missy survived a night on a table inside a Maribyrnong home as floodwaters lapped at her feet.

Maribyrnong residents spent Saturday beginning the daunting clean-up as roads around the area remained closed off to traffic.

The floods across Victoria have so far cost one person their life. A 71-year-old man from Rochester was found dead in their backyard on Saturday morning.

His wife was reportedly trapped inside the couple’s home and had to be rescued.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said the state was seeing a reprieve from rain, but houses were still being inundated and communities isolated.

“We have 10 choppers up in the air providing assessment of damage but also moving people around, moving cargo around to support those affected communities,” he said.

The Victorian Premier told reporters 344 roads across the state are currently closed due to the flooding.

Ali Ulfet cleans out his mothers house where Missy spent the night cowering on a table. Picture: David Crosling

“We remain in a situation where we know of 500 homes that are isolated,” Mr Andrews said.

“Almost certainly we’ll see those numbers grow as floodwaters peak.”

Victoria Police Assistant Commissioner David Clayton said emergency services had responded to more than 350 calls for help.

Of those, 150 were people who had driven through floodwaters and 10 call-outs were in response to capsized tinnies.

Around 200 requests for assistance were related to homes inundated by flooding.

Mr Clayton said it was not a time to go “driving and sightseeing”.

“We’ve had a rescue of a truck driver in really difficult circumstances because (he) chose to drive through floodwaters,” he said.

“We anticipate in coming days we will see some of the largest evacuations we have ever seen.”

— with NCA NewsWire