Man found dead in inundated Rochester as Shepparton, Echuca brace for flooding

Victoria’s flood crisis has claimed its first life after a man was found dead at a home in Rochester in the state’s north.

Floodwaters continued rising in the town overnight, leading to rescues and evacuations into the early hours of the morning, while in Shepparton residents are mounting a mammoth sandbagging operation ahead of an expected record flood.

Flooding in Rochester on Saturday.Credit: Justin McManus

Thousands of residents in central Victoria have been told to evacuate or prepare to leave their homes with no idea when they will be able to return.

“We’re going to see some of the largest evacuations that we have ever seen,” Assistant Police Commissioner David Clayton told reporters on Saturday morning.

As of 10am on Saturday there were major flood warnings for parts of the Avoca River, Goulburn River, King River, Mt Emu Creek, Loddon Weir, Ovens River, Broken River and Seven Creeks.

It is now too late to leave the towns of Murchison and Murchison East, which are downstream of Shepparton along the Goulburn River.

Floodwaters continued to rise in Rochester overnight.Credit: Justin McManus

Emergency services are now turning their attention to Echuca, where the Campaspe and Murray rivers meet.

Tim Wiebusch, head of the State Emergency Service, said some Echuca residents needed to be prepared to evacuate this weekend.

“The information I have is that there will be a significant part of Echuca that will be asked to evacuate, most likely just after lunchtime today, ahead of those peak waters they’re expected overnight tonight, and through the subsequent days,” he said.

“You need to be alert to your conditions and need to be preparing to evacuate, particularly if you’re in areas within some distance of the river. Don’t expect that just because you might be a kilometre or two away that it won’t impact you.”

Sandbagging in Shepparton on Saturday.Credit: Eddie Jim

Wiebusch said water moving down the Campaspe River could affect the town on Saturday, while the rising Murray River could threaten the town mid-next week.

In Rochester, about 30 kilometres south of Echuca, a 71-year-old man was found dead in the backyard of his High Street home at about 9.30am on Saturday.

Victoria Police and SES crews are near the scene but unable to reach the property as it is cut off by floodwater.

“Rochester is a proud local community, a very tight local community and they’ll all be saddened to hear of one of their number passing away,” Premier Daniel Andrews told the media on Saturday.

There are 466 properties that are flooded with water above the floorboards and a further 500 that are isolated, he said.

SES Rochester controller Tim Williams said the town was completely covered in floodwater on Saturday morning.

“Every single house in town will have water,” he said.

Williams said this disaster was “ridiculously different” to the devastating 2011 floods, with many people this time evacuated who remained dry in the previous event.

Rochester was completely covered in floodwater on Saturday.Credit: Justin McManus

He said there was just one boat in the town working to evacuate stranded people, with about 150 people rescued overnight.

Rochester’s east is divided from the west, with access unlikely to reopen soon.

“The clean up will begin before we can get from east to west,” Williams said.

Glenys Mulcahy, who hosted The Age on Friday while her house flooded, confirmed she and her husband Brian were safe and being well looked after by emergency services. An SES unit took them to an evacuation centre in Bendigo about 3.30am on Saturday.

“I think it really helps you to get through it all,” she said. “It’s beautiful here.”

Glenys said they decided to leave their home when water reached about 14 inches up the walls, heading to a friend’s house before they were evacuated.

In Shepparton, the flood is not expected to peak until early next week, perhaps on Tuesday, and it is feared some 4000 homes in low-lying parts of the city will be inundated.

A giant sandbagging machine has been brought in from Sydney. Two volunteers delivered it on the back of a semi-trailer, driving through the night and early hours of Saturday morning.

It can spit out enough sand to fill about 1000 sandbags an hour, Rapid Relief Team leader Brent Pederick said.

Liza Costigan queued for two and a half hours before her boot was filled was sandbags. She lives on the north side of Shepparton with her children in a newer housing estate and said she was “freaking out a little bit”.

“The warnings are not looking great,” she said.

Costigan doesn’t think her 25-bag allocation will be enough to protect her entire house.

Meanwhile, in Melbourne’s Maribyrnong, shocked residents were returning to their mud-filled homes to begin the arduous task of cleaning up.

A total of 245 homes in Maribyrnong flooded after the river peaked on Friday morning, the SES confirmed.

Damaged household goods, furniture and clothes are piled up on the footpath along Oakland Street.

The roads and footpaths are covered in a carpet of mud and neighbours are using brooms and rakes to sweep it away from their driveways and gardens.

Hoang Nguyen and wife Lam Luong cleaning up their home in Maribyrnong on Saturday.Credit: Marta Pascual

Mother-of-five Lam Luong was putting her family’s soiled personal belongings in plastic bags as her father-in-law carted cardboard boxes and waste in a wheelbarrow.

Neighbours have come in to lend a hand emptying the house, which was inundated yesterday.

“Cheap stuff, expensive stuff, it’s all the same,” Luong said. “It’s all the same colour. I hate brown from now on.”

Member for Maribyrnong Bill Shorten said many houses and a lot of community infrastructure had been damaged.

“I think that people here knew the theory of flood damage, but because it hasn’t happened in a couple of generations of this significance I think it’s a shock,” Shorten told ABC News.

People displaced by the floods are eligible for one-off payments of $560 per adult and $280 per child.

The federal and state governments have agreed to use the recently retired $580 million Mickleham quarantine facility as emergency accommodation.

The facility will reopen early next week for 250 people, with crisis accommodation available for six to eight weeks, but its actual use will depend on demand, the Victorian government confirmed.

Mostly dry conditions were forecast for Monday and Tuesday across Victoria, but flooding is expected to return late in the week.

with AAP

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