07.39 pm, Monday February 13 2012

Family rescued from rising floodwaters

13:00 AEDT Mon Sep 6 2010
By ninemsn staff with AAP
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A Victorian family of five trapped in their home by rising floodwaters have been rescued.

State Emergency Services (SES) confirmed the family, including three children and a dog, had called for help from their home on the Goulburn Valley Highway near Kialla West.

The SES were able to drive a boat up the family's driveway to collect the family and some of their belongings.

They were in good health and did not require medical assistance.

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The town of Shepparton in the state’s northeast is one of many communities that remains under threat from floodwaters after a weekend of storms, with residents keeping an eye on the nearby river.

“We’re on the back of the Goulburn River which is expected to peak tomorrow at 10.7m,” Melissa Elliott, the manager of the Victoria Lake Holiday Park in Shepparton, told ninemsn.

“I think it’s at about 9.5m now.”

More than 250 homes have been evacuated in the northeastern part of the state with hundreds more houses expected to be affected as water levels reach a 15-year high.

“We’re preparing for the worst. We have all the caravans hooked up to cars and ready to go,” Ms Elliot said.

“The whole park is on high alert.”

Despite the rain easing, many towns remain threatened by floods and are isolated by road closures.

Other residents of Victoria's flood areas were still waiting to learn whether they would be evacuated, as large volumes of water continued to wash through their towns.

SES spokesman Lachlan Quick said crews had received 3800 requests for assistance since late Friday when the deluge began.

Volunteers will today concentrate on Wangaratta and Shepparton, Horsham in western Victoria and Bairnsdale and parts of the South Gippsland Highway in the east.

"Floodwater will start to be seen at Shepparton and Horsham today but won't peak in both regional centres until probably around Tuesday lunchtime or after," Mr Quick said.

"The end's not in sight yet."

High water volumes mean relocations could continue for the next few days, but widespread evacuations have been avoided by targeting individual homes.

More than 55,000 emergency alerts have been sent out to affected residents over the weekend to warn of inundation risks.

"It's just taking a long time for the sheer volume of water to make its way through a lot of the townships," Mr Quick said.

About 50 Defence Force personnel are due to arrive at the SES Shepparton incident control centre today to help with sandbagging and assessing the worst hit areas.

Extra support for SES crews has been sought from Queensland, Tasmania and South Australia.

There are 60 homes in Shepparton and 50 in Horsham at risk of flooding, while 300 properties have so far been evacuated in the central Highlands and northeast regions.

Shepparton mayor Geoff Dobson said the town was hoping that the three waterways that meet in there - the Goulburn, the Broken and Sevens Creek - would peak at different times.

The town is on a floodplain, so it was hoped the water would spread out at Shepparton and cause minimal damage, he told ABC Radio.

"If that happens then we can hopefully minimise (damage)," he said.

The flooding did bring some benefits, such as watering the Murray-Darling system and possibly washing out some locust eggs, Mr Dobson said.

"It may well be a lot of the locust hatchings are flooded out," he said.

"If that's the case they'll be drowned, so hopefully that might minimise it (a locust plague)."

 
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