This does not mean there will be more flooding in the Rose City.
But with weather events, driven by the La Niña system, set to continue into the new year, it is important to be ready if waters rise again.
Despite seeing the worst flooding in more than a decade, a look around the state shows how fortunate Benalla was to avoid a repeat of 1993 — or worse.
Benalla SES controller Alex Young said he was proud of the work the unit had done in recent weeks, and months.
“During the recent event there were members who hadn’t stopped for more than seven days,” Mr Young said.
“Some were doing long stints in operation control centres and I had some members go to units around our area to help fill their needs.
“We’d like to say thank you to our members’ employers, and our self-employed members, they have been fantastic.”
Mr Young said the biggest thing now was for the community to be aware that this event was not going to disappear overnight.
“We’re looking at a very extended, long-term, weather system, taking us into the new year,” he said.
"Our advice is, if you’ve been to these sandbag sites and collected sandbags that haven’t been contaminated by flood waters — put them aside.
“Put them in a shed, in a dry place, ready to go.
“These events are going to be more frequent over the next couple of months, and we are seeing shortages of sandbags in the area.
“Obviously there’s a lot of towns that are flooding, and the sandbag supplies are being prioritised for those towns.
“Even hessian sandbags, they’re struggling to get supply into Victoria.
“We’ve been fielding a lot of requests for sandbags, and in that preparedness stage we’re trying to help as many people as we can by giving them the right info.
“We are compiling a list of people who we classify as being in a vulnerable area.
“They will get calls or messages back at times when we get intel from our state controllers, and the Bureau (of Meterorology), telling us what weather events we’re looking at.”
My Young said the message was simple: be prepared.
“We want the community to be familiar with the Benalla local flood guide,” he said.
“That is on the SES website. But for people that aren’t tech savvy, we have hard copies available from here at the SES unit, and council has copies.
“Our advice is to get the flood guide, really have a good read. It’s got really good information for the local community.
“Prepare, act and survive is the biggest thing.
“Having that preparedness in your house could save minutes and save your house, or give you enough time to get out and get to safety.”
Find the Benalla flood guide at www.ses.vic.gov.au/plan-and-stay-safe/flood-guides
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