Echuca residents are bracing for the Murray River to peak at the “highest level in a lifetime” overnight.
A week after an evacuation order was first issued for the border town because of flooding from the Campaspe River, the town is still on high alert as the Murray River continues to threaten homes.
The Murray River has surpassed the flooding in Echuca of 1993.Credit:Steve Huntley/Riverine Herald
On Sunday, Victoria’s SES chief officer of operations Tim Wiebusch said he was expecting the Murray River at Echuca to reach 95 to 95.2 metres (Australian Heigh Datum) in the next 24 to 36 hours.
“An evacuation warning still remains current, particularly for areas of Echuca Village where we did see some further evacuations overnight with the over-topping of the primary levee,” he told the Weekend Today program.
The SES boss said it would be another four to six weeks before they expected to see the tail end of flooding along the Murray River. “And that’s without any further rainfall,” Wiebusch added.
He said Swan Hill and Mildura, in the state’s north-west, could see flood levels later this month through to mid-November.
The floodwater level rose to the top of the Patchell Bridge in Kerang on Saturday morning.Credit:Eddie Jim
“Plenty of time for those communities to start preparing and thinking about what they might do when those warnings come,” he said.
He urged people along the Murray and Loddon River to keep their phones charged and to be aware of emergency alerts.
“We know many are relying on their levees … there could be over-topping and seepage at times, so conditions can change and warnings could escalate,” Wiebusch said.
The Murray River height was at 94.83m at Echuca Wharf at 7am on Sunday, according to the Bureau of Meteorology and the Loddon River reached 77.84m at 6am.
The Loddon River is expected to peak on Sunday and the levee west of the river and south of the Murray Valley Highway has already been breached in some areas, according to the State Emergency Services. The SES has warned that further rises are possible and levels could reach the January 2011 flood peak of 78.03m on Sunday.
The levee east of the Loddon River was unlikely to breach, authorities said. However, people in the area have been warned that they risk being isolated for between 24 and 36 hours once the river peaks.
A Bureau of Meteorology spokeswoman previously said the Murray River at Echuca would peak at “the highest [level] in a lifetime”, getting close to the 1916 flood level of 95.28 metres.
On Sunday there could be more rain for Echuca and Kerang, bureau forecaster Christie Johnson said.
The pattern would be “hit-and-miss”, however, with some areas not seeing much while other areas could experience isolated thunderstorms.
Echuca could see rainfall totals of 5 to 15mm. At Kerang it could be between two and eight millimetres, she said.
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