Thousands of homes in the Victorian towns of Shepparton and nearby Mooroopna have been inundated as of Sunday morning, with conditions expected to worsen in the coming hours.
Evacuation warnings were issued for parts of Shepparton, Mooroopna and Orrvale on Saturday, and residents have been told it’s now too dangerous to leave.
Lisa Ladas and husband Leo are among those who have stayed put. They say they will wait out the flooding after protecting their home with sandbags and helping their neighbours.
“It’s too late to leave now, all the roads are blocked. And we just woke up today to floodwaters rising in front of our home too,” Ms Ladas told Neos Kosmos.
“I don’t have a clear picture of what’s happening beyond our neighbourhood, as we’ve been locked in.”
The couple say they decided not to leave and protect their property, hoping the area will be spared inundation thanks to its elevation and location, a bit further away from the town centre.
“The Boulevard area is relatively new and so we’ve never had experience with floods. We’re all waiting anxiously to see what will happen.”
The Goulburn River passed 11.8 metres at Shepparton, causing water to flow into the centre of the town. Authorities estimate the river could reach a peak of 12.2 metres on Monday.
CFA incident controller at Shepparton Geoff Rowe said that they hoped the 12.2 metres would be “the maximum but we’ll just have to wait and see.”
“That water is going to take a significant time to dissipate. The levels aren’t going to drop quickly,” Mr Rowe said.
More than 80,000 sandbags have been distributed across Greater Shepparton. Ms Ladas collected 20 sandbags from the distribution centre and returned with her husband for another round.
“We made it just in time, before roads were blocked.”
“Nobody from our neighbourhood left. Just before, I reached out to the old lady living across the street by herself. We all look after each other,” Ms Ladas said.
“Our three kids are in Melbourne, they are worried, yes, but we think we are sufficiently protected now and pray it’s all going to go well.”
“We’ve also got plenty of food and collected some water in buckets as water quality will be bad in the days to come.”
Water treatment has been put on hold in the area and residents are told to boil water prior to consumption.
Ms Ladas said they were expecting to have electricity cut off, as happened in Mooroopna.
“We’re lucky. Many are way worse than us. A friend in Mooroopna told me they were rescued by emergency services, they couldn’t leave the house.”
“I was also worried about our priest, whose house is in one of the worst affected areas, but found out just this morning he is OK as well.”
The Sunday service at the St George Greek Orthodox Church in Shepparton was held normally, but a scheduled bus tour of parishioners from Melbourne was cancelled.
Residents in the worst-hit Victorian council areas by the floods, including Greater Shepparton and Maribyrnong, will be eligible for a one-off, non-means tested Australian government disaster recovery payment.