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About 34,000 homes could be flooded or quarantined in Victoria as a flood emergency continues in parts of southeastern Australia, officials said.
Victoria was the worst-affected state, with some towns experiencing their highest river peaks in decades.
NSW and Tasmania are also experiencing flooding during the emergency that began last week.
Federal Emergency Management Minister Murray Watt said Victoria was facing “severe flooding” with more rain expected later in the week.
Mr Watt told the ABC: “As different river systems converge, we are likely to see a flood peak, receding water levels, and then another peak.
“So it’s a very serious situation, and the reports I’m getting are that we … could see as many as 9,000 homes flooded in northern Victoria and maybe close to 34,000 homes in Victoria that are flooded or quarantined.”
Two people have drowned and two are missing in Victoria and NSW over the past week.
The latest fatality comes on Saturday when a 71-year-old man was found dead in floodwaters in the backyard of his home in the central Victorian town of Rochester, about 110 miles north of the Victorian capital Melbourne.
Victoria Emergency Services chief operating officer Tim Wiebusch estimated that 85 per cent of the city of Rochester was inundated by the flooded Campaspe River over the weekend.
The northern Victorian town of Kerang could be quarantined for up to seven days when the Loddon River peaks on Wednesday or Thursday, Mr Wiebusch said.
“While we have many communities where rivers are starting to recede, there are still many rivers and communities at risk of major flooding in the coming days,” he added.
Many schools and roads in southeastern Australia were closed and thousands evacuated their homes.
October is typically the start of wildfire season in three states that are experiencing record and near-record flooding.
The landscape is typically dry in the southern hemisphere spring and fire danger escalates in summer.
But the Australian Bureau of Meteorology announced last month that the Pacific was experiencing its third consecutive La Niña, linked to above-average rainfall in eastern Australia.
The bureau predicts that La Niña may peak in the current southern hemisphere spring and return to neutral conditions early next year.
Professor Julie Arblaster from Monash University’s School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment in Melbourne described three La Ninas in a row as rare.
“The rainfall and flooding are consistent with our understanding of how La Niña events affect our region,” Professor Arblaster said in a statement.
Other climate drivers – a positive southern ring pattern and a negative Indian Ocean Dipole – also bring above-average rainfall to eastern Australia.
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