Floods: More bad weather inundates towns, crops

Large parts of sodden NSW and Victoria have received a deluge of unwelcome rain, leaving towns isolated and further pushing back harvest. See the latest.

A band of severe storms dumped up to 100mm of rain on large parts of NSW last night, sending a torrent of water through catchments and triggering widespread flash flooding that forced thousands of residents to be evacuated.

The blitz was a continuation of heavy rain that fell throughout the weekend on an already sodden 40,000 square kilometre zone, with swollen waterways running from the southwest slopes, through the central and southern tablelands and down to the Riverina.

Last night’s rapidly rising waters caught many off guard, with some seeking shelter on caravan roofs while the Defence Force used helicopters to rescue people and livestock trapped by floodwaters.

Molong, north of Orange, was swamped by a wall of water in the dead of night so strong it smashed shop windows in the main street, knocked down a supermarket wall and carried a 40-foot shipping container down the Mitchell Highway.

Making a start at 9pm on a Friday. What could possibly go wrong? Lightning in the west, and crop flat on the ground 🤞🏻 pic.twitter.com/rIujm0zuTN

— Dibs.Cush (@DibsCush) November 11, 2022

The town’s residents have been told it is too late to leave, some were moved to a pop-up evacuation centre during the night by rescue workers.

And it is far from over, with the Mandagery Creek gauge downstream at Eugowra predicted to reach 10.3 metres later today.

Residents in low lying areas in Canowindra, in central western NSW, have also been urged to seek higher ground.

In the last 24 hours, the NSW State Emergency Service has responded to 33 flood rescues and 462 requests for assistance, including two children caught in a storm water drain in Albury and six vehicles caught in flood water after a bridge washed away in Woodstock.

VICTORIA RIVERS ALSO RISING

The predicted drenching for north east Victoria materialised with already saturated areas of the Upper Murray, Kiewa Valley and Ovens Valley receiving more than 100mm for the week.

Osbornes Flat near Yackandandah recorded 121mm for the week with Mongans Bridge and Rocky Point in the Kiewa Valley having 116mm and 102mm and respectively.

Heavy rain was also recorded and in the Mallee and Wimmera regions of western Victoria, with Natimuk recording 67mm, Jeparit 66mm, Goroke 62mm and 61mm at Nhill. Eastern South Australia, where over 400,000 lightning strikes were recorded on Sunday, was also heavily impacted.

The BOM have warned of further flooding and rain to continue to fall across northern Victoria and central NSW throughout the week. Snow is also predicted to possibly fall across Victoria’s alpine peaks this week.

It is predicted that the Murray River at Corowa could reach moderate flood level of 8.2 metres on Tuesday.

Picture of the damage from floods in Molong overnight. Residents in Molong, north west of Orange have begun the clean-up operation following major flooding overnight, their third in 12 months. Photo: Christopher Tan

MORE RAIN FOR THE WIMMERA

Farmers in the Wimmera and in the southern expanses of the Mallee have seen torrential rain during the past week as water pools in already sodden paddocks.

Another rain system swept from South Australia through to the Wimmera during the weekend bringing heavy falls, flash flooding and threatening saturated crops in some parts.

67mm had fallen at Natimuk in the week to 9am Monday while Jeparit (66mm), Goroke (62mm) and Nhill (61mm) have also copped some of the heaviest downpours.

Northern Wimmera farmer Matt Rohde who produces a variety of crops in the Nhill-Jeparit district said his paddocks received about 50mm rain over the last few days.

Prior to this November rain event Mr Rohde said there has been no dry break in the region for months with 90mm recorded at his wettest paddock in August, 102mm in September, 154mm in October and 71mm recorded in November to date.

But despite the significant rainfall Mr Rohde was remaining optimistic about how his crops were fairing.

“Earlier on it looked like we were going to have a really good year, but about mid-September it started to go the other way,” he said.

“The lentils have been the first things to go, they don’t like wet feet, and we started seeing some yellow areas in the paddocks.”

Across the year Mr Rohde has recorded about 650mm, twice as much as the average annual rainfall of 330-350mm.

And with nowhere left for the water to soak, Mr Rohde said some paddocks had become submerged as water traverses the land towards swamps and Lake Hindmarsh.

For now Mr Rohde there was not much he could do but remain positive and wait for the weather to clear up.

“There is risk we could lose weight in the cereals, staining with the legumes and some quality issues too,” he said.

“I think it is not going to be a year where you can afford to mess around. I think we will need to get crop off where we can.

“I’m not sure how we are going to manage it yet, but we will have to come up with a bit of plan and pick and choose the paddocks we can get into.

“Generally we are doing okay, we will just have to wait and see, but we won’t really know until it is in the bin.”

FOOD BOWL FLOATING

The rainfall compounded the situation of some farmers who have already spent weeks in isolation, as the wall of water crossed already sodden paddocks, washed over bridges and roads and washed out railway lines.

One farmer near Forbes tweeted that he had recorded 156mm on his farm overnight Sunday, compared with 154mm for the entirety of 2019.

The forecast heavy rain, thunderstorms and flooding prompted some grain growers to turn on the harvester lights and work well into Friday night as lightning crackled from the west and crops laid flat on the ground.

Conargo’s Richard Knox said the rain had arrived at the worst possible time with falls of up to 80mm coming as cotton crops were due to be planted and winter crops ready to be harvested on his Riverina property.

“We’re having trouble getting cotton in,” he said.

“The window for that is closing pretty rapidly. We’re pumping water off winter crops so things are pretty dismal really.

54mm overnight. Don’t think hay will be baled on this block anymore and who knows when headers will be out of sheds. Very deflated this morning. pic.twitter.com/nYGOzSnkB2

— Luke Byrne (@byrnedaddy) November 12, 2022

“We’ve been under water for four weeks and it’s starting to wear you down and we were due to desiccate our canola this week, but I can’t see us getting on a paddock for another four weeks.”

The downfalls further flattened and drowned paddocks across cropping country and wine grape growers in the Riverina and Barossa were inundated, as the fortunes of red grape growers already battling heavy market conditions and downy mildew, sank further into the mud.

Other affected crops include grapes, strawberries, citrus, pears, rice, tomatoes, apples, almonds, stone fruit, cherries and potatoes.

Grain Producers Australia southern region director Andrew Weidemann said last weekend’s rain would compound crop losses in areas that had already been wet for a year.

“There’s certainly big areas from Serpentine, Bendigo, Mitiamo, to Echuca, that are really going to suffer big time in terms of wheat and barley yields,” he said.

“I’m still quite optimistic that there’s going to be some good stories in certain areas, but that’s not going to be the general rule of thumb for a lot of farmers.”

He said yield losses in wheat in the Wimmera and Mallee could be up to 20 per cent due to rust but would still be “above average”. Up to two thirds of canola yields could be lost due to the wet conditions, and lentil losses were “huge” with plants dying due to waterlogging, he said.

Meanwhile, the flooding is being felt in the saleyards, with agents at the Leongatha sale last week saying that producers were struggling to absorb the influx of numbers as their pasture growth lags following flooding.

RECORD RAINFALL

Several NSW centres have recorded more than double their annual average rainfall, with seven weeks of the year remaining.

Nowra, on the NSW south coast, has recorded 2469mm of rain for the calendar year or almost three times what it would normally expect. Moss Vale has measured 1770mm, or 161 per cent more than normal, while Ivanhoe in southwest NSW has recorded 582mm – or 150 per cent more than its annual average.

Perhaps a bit early get back into it after another 40 mm! ; and it’s 1am 🙄! ........crop is over ripe and needs to be cut ASAP . pic.twitter.com/L0Udy6IGSV

— Mark Modra (@farmersgrowit) November 12, 2022

Other centres to record significantly more rain than normal this year have included Wilcannia (647mm or 147 per cent more than its long-term calendar year average), Condobolin (918mm or 128 per cent more), Lake Cargelligo (911mm or 119 per cent more), Broken Hill (538mm or 117 per cent more), Tibooburra (390mm or 114 per cent more) and Griffith (832mm or 111 per cent more).

In Victoria, Swan Hill has recorded 592mm so far this year, or almost double its 300mm calendar year average. Horsham has recorded 650mm, or 79 per cent more than its annual average, followed by Mildura with 482mm (69 per cent more), Bendigo with 826mm (64 per cent more), Nhill with 522mm (57 per cent more).