Floods know no border

FLOOD waters from the swollen Wimmera River were lapping at the edge of the road only a metre or so from his car, as Horsham doctor Alan Wolff spoke to The AJN while navigating the town’s sandbag-lined streets on Monday.

“I’m just coming down to the river at the moment and the river has crossed the road and is starting to get into people’s front gardens,” he reported from behind the wheel, as the Victorian town braced for what was predicted to be its worst flooding in 200 years.

Dr Wolff, who is director of medical services at Wimmera Base Hospital, said the hospital had not yet had to treat any flood victims, but with hundreds of local houses already flooded, his staff were on stand-by.

“It’s surreal. The weather’s been perfect, with no rain, but we’re just waiting for all this water to come down the river,” he said.

“The bridge from one side of town to the other has been closed because they think the height of the water will make it unsafe to use.”

In central Victoria, Howard Nathan, president of Kehillat Sdot Zahav, said a Kyabram couple who are congregants have experienced flooding on their property located on the banks of the surging Loddon River.

The owners believed their house would escape flooding, but just to be on the safe side, took up an offer to shelter at a friend’s house.

“They went back the following morning and the waters were only five centimetres from their floor,” Nathan said.

“They went off to their work as travel agents, but got a phone call from the State Emergency Service that their floor was now 50 centimetres under water. The rivers rise and fall very, very quickly, so they got flooded out when they thought they were safe.”

Nathan, a retired Victorian Supreme Court judge, was among volunteers who rescued people marooned in flooded houses. His own property near Castlemaine has so far escaped flooding.

PETER KOHN