On the scene: Emergency services will continue pumping water from Lenne St, Mooroopna and others today. Photo: Rechelle Zammit
Emergency services have warned it remains unsafe to return to Bunbartha and its surrounding townships, with several roads still cut off throughout the area.
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Shepparton incident controller Ray Jasper said the emergency warning would remain in place until Monday at least.
“Unfortunately, we’ve tried to get into Bunbartha to assess the roads but looking at that emergency warning, that will be current for the next 24 hours,” Mr Jasper said.
“The community is still isolated, road access is still cut so that emergency warning will have to stay on until we can open the roads and make sure it’s safe to travel.”
If you have not yet evacuated Bunbartha, you should shelter in the highest location possible.
A relief centre has been opened at Nathalia Community Centre at 42 Robinson St.
Mr Jasper said emergency services would continue pumping operations across Mooroopna again today, with a number of roads still covered by floodwater.
“We’re certainly doing significant pumping today in Mooroopna — Watt Rd, Toolamba Rd and Lenne St, and we’re certainly looking at whether or not we can open them today in some shape or form,” Mr Jasper said.
Mr Jasper reinforced the message to residents to not drive through floodwaters, with one road rescue completed in the last 24 hours.
There was good news for Barmah and the Lower Moira area, Mr Jasper said, with a predicted peak of 7.6m not expected.
An evacuation warning however remains in place for Barmah and Lower Moira, and it is too late to leave the community in these areas.
“We’re still focussing on Barmah and the Lower Moira area; the good news is we don’t think it will get to the 7.6m predicted level, we’re thinking around 7.3m, 7.35m it will peak at,” he said.
“It will certainly continue to hold its height but it also has stabilised there, but certainly lower than the predicted peak in Barmah, Moira communities.”
The Murchison Bridge has opened to light vehicles only, with the extent of flood damage to the bridge yet to be determined.
Running river: Minor flooding in Numurkah on Saturday afternoon near the caravan park. Photo: Megan Fisher
A moderate flood warning remains in place for the Numurkah and Nathalia areas following minor flooding along the Broken Creek at Walsh’s Bridge, but Mr Jasper stressed river levels were unlikely to reach 2010 levels.
“We need to reinforce for the Nathalia and Numurkah communities this is not a 2010 event,” Mr Jasper said.
“We know the Broken Creek has had slight rises in Nathalia yesterday afternoon but it is still a minor event, we’ll state all the way through, this is different to the 2010 event, what they’ve got is what they’re going to see, it’s still rising a little bit but there’s no concerns around that.”
Three impact assessment crews are in Shepparton today, and will continue to assess flood-damaged homes across the Goulburn Valley.
“They are still working through today and have nearly finished Murchison, they will get into Kialla West today, they are certainly working hard to try and finalise damage assessments and will continue further down as they can get access,” Mr Jasper said.
Mr Jasper urged any residents with flood damage to notify authorities.
Community information sessions will be held in Seymour and Mooroopna today.
Mooroopna’s event will be held at 4.30pm at Riverlinks WestSide, while a flood recovery meeting will be held in Seymour from 2-3pm at Seymour College senior school stadium.
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