Victoria now starts flooding

[ballaratdragons]

Victoria's turn :sadeyes:

Parts of Kyneton are under water, Natimuk has been evacuated and is flooded out, Avoca is flooded out, towns surrounding Ballarat cut off and flooding, and still the rain keep coming and levels are rising.

My own property here at Snake Valley is flooded (house is high and dry), and I have a river tearing through my paddocks!

Looks like we are in for a wild few days.

Some pics from the area:

[erick]

Amazing turnaround from a few years ago. :rain:

Maybe we have to build a bridge across your back yard?

[ballaratdragons]

LOL, might have to Eric. The road up to the clubroom is under water again. :rolleyes:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/01/13/3111793.htm?site=melbourne

[Alchemy]

Yep, the west half of Vic has got it this time, more to come in the next 24 hours too.

[Kal]

Is that your house in the first pic Ken?!

Sooo much flooding everywhere :(

[ballaratdragons]

No Andrew, that is a house just over at Avoca.

Not looking forward to tonight. The forecast is for 90-120kph winds and heavy rain! Yikes.

[erick]

All scope gear is indoors, Ken? It did enough falling over and getting wet last year :sadeyes:

I think I'll head for home early since I'm headed west. Last night I just missed very heavy rain as I drove into Bacchers. I'd rather not cross Anthony's Cutting in heavy rain with the loonies on the road.

[M110]

Batten down the hatches Ken, and stay safe.

[Greenswale]

Maybe the flood will wash the mozzies away? NOT!!!

All the best to you and yours - keep safe and dry.

[danielsun]

Yep, I can't believe the amount of rain that has been falling here.:eyepop:
Take care Ken.

[marki]

Keep safe Ken, remember material goods can be replaced.


Mark

[h0ughy]

keep safe guys and gals

[mill]

Good luck Ken and say hi to Cheryl and the boys from me.
Driving to jobs is a pain in the you know what at the moment.
I am lucky to live fairly high (267 Meters).

[astroron]

Keep safe and dry Ken.
Cheers

[supernova1965]

Unbelievable the weather in australia atm we are in for an interesting year be safe all

[jjjnettie]

Take care down there.
Remember the snakes will be heading for high ground too.

We're thinking of you.

[[1ponders]]

take care down there Ken. Stay high and dry.

[Exfso]

Jeez Ken, sounds dire, take care and keep safe. BTW we are sending some more over your way as well...:P

[mill]

Peter we know that you love to share :rofl::rofl:

[erick]

I hope you didn't see the downpour I hit on the way home. Anthony's Cutting was absolutely treacherous with water pouring across the road, rolling lumps of rock and stone. In some places, the road was down to a single lane. Even the loonies slowed down to the 30-40kph in second gear I was doing.

Hope you are safe Ken and family.

[ballaratdragons]

Thanks all.
Yeah, getting pretty wild here at the moment!

The whole town of Halls Gap out at the Grampians has been evacuated, towns all around here are flooded, A family at Smythes Creek had to rescued from floodwater, all roads to and from anywhere around this part of the state are cut, including the Western Highway.

And the bad stuff is only just starting :eyepop:

EDIT: the Manhole cover in my hallway just got sucked up into the ceiling :lol: :help:

[Mariposa]

Halls Gap?....seriously?, I was there just last week, I live in Mildura, and the weather has been wild here during the whole week and tonight we are expecting thunderstorms and more rain, it actually never stops raining, some low areas are already inundated.

[Chillie]

Thankfully, I live a few km's from the Wimmera River.

My cousin told me that part of her street is flooded. It was up to the door step when we had heavy rain a few weeks ago.
As of 11:45pm, Horsham has had 40.2mm of rain with more to come.

[GrampianStars]

Good to hear Chill !
A bit different here :eyepop:
Wet! Wet! Wet!
just hit 120mm solid now for the last 15 hours.
Funny thing was I cleaned the gutta's and downpipes last Saturday.
Must have had a premonition :screwy: with the brief hail storm.

Bugga! :mad2: my shed is flooded ! from runoff seeping under a roller door,
dams,tanks,paddocks all overflowing.
Yeah! at least the Obs is dry :D surrounded by water but!
I knew building a raised deck was a good idea back in the drought days of 2001! :thumbsup:
Poor Bugga's down the road (Halls Gap) :help: are flooded and have been evacuated.

[GrampianStars]

Found this :eek:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LLGJdg0sZk

[ballaratdragons]

Thanks Rob, and that was filmed BEFORE last nights downpour!

[Ric]

Hi Ken

Hope you guys are all safe down there.

I expect you are getting a few call outs with the CFA at the moment to assist.

Cheers

[ballaratdragons]

It was a scary night here with the massive winds and heavy rain all night!
We are completely cut off in every direction.

Here is what I see from my house right now :hi:
Nice wet view :help:

[erick]

Where is, gulp, the view towards the clubsite? :sadeyes:

[M110]

Thanks for more pics.
When all the rain is all over we will have another ten yrs of drought, you watch

[ballaratdragons]

Here it is Eric. :thumbsup: (1st Pic shows clubroom high and dry, but road cut)
and some from around town.
3 houses that we know of are under water but the roads are closed only a few hundred metres from my house in any direction so I can't see what is happening in the worse parts.

[erick]

Thanks, that is an amazing sight, Ken. I bet "Crystal Lake" is overflowing!

[Bob]

Gee Ken
If you didn`t want visitors this weekend, there was no need to go to all this trouble , you could have just told us.

Seriously, I hope all is well, and the family all safe.

Cheers Bob

[Greenswale]

One has to admire one who establishes one's astronomy association clubroom on higher ground than one's house. True dedication!!!!!!!!!!

[Dave47tuc]

Take care over there ken :thumbsup:

Floods everywhere unreal stay safe all.

[ballaratdragons]

I reckon the whole camp will be under water. I tried to get up there to have a look but the road is closed.
I'll try again later.



:rofl:

Yeah, we're all safe and dry thanks Bob. :)



Yeah Wren, priorities :P

[ballaratdragons]

I made a video of the flood here in our town of Snake Valley.

Our part of the flood was nowhere near as big as most places. Only a few houses got damaged, but at least you can see what it was like around here.

The Clubroom can be seen safe up on the hill (0:52 seconds) :thumbsup: :lol:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZcsygPIB0o

[danielsun]

Ken ,glad to hear you got through it O.K. The pier at the camp looked a little buckled and damaged. Great video :thumbsup: but not great floods.:( Weather clearing for the weekend so hopefully that's the end of it.

[GrampianStars]

Here's my no access wet neck of the woods

Also a panoramic shot of the property :thumbsup:

[GrampianStars]

:D
The sky is clear 2day :thumbsup: and the Obs might get some use 2nite
Ah! clears the water high and dry

[ballaratdragons]

Thanks for the pics Rob.

Looks like your obs was high and dry too :thumbsup:

Almost all flood water gone from here.
Just a lot of mud, grass and debris hung up in fences, a few damaged bridges and some road repairs etc.

Yes Daniel, lets hope that's the end of it for us all. We need these next few days of sunshine to dry everything.

[Chillie]

Sorry I took so long to get back to you all. I've been busy.

I do have some photos but they are that far out of date (2 or 3 days ago) they're not worth posting. However, I do have a couple of links to show you what we are expecting here in Horsham.

http://wcma.vic.gov.au/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=219&Itemid=118

Click on flood maps , then click on Horsham Flood Map 200-year (328.24 kB). That should download a PDF of the map. If not, look for the title above on the flood maps page.

Once down loaded, you can open it and zoom in for a better view. This map show what is like to happen at the peek of the flood.

I live in Horsham North so I'm OK but there are currently some areas without power and water everywhere. I have a 3 way fridge running on gas just in case my power goes out.

[ballaratdragons]

Stay safe and dry Chillie, coz its about to get worse!

NEWS TONIGHT - 20 more Victorian towns about to be flooded!

Flood waters are rising again in Victoria and many more towns are now under threat: http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/floods/8197634/one-in-200-year-flood-threat-at-horsham

Lots of Highways and roads closed again tonight: http://mobiletraffic.vicroads.vic.gov.au/floodalerts/

[Chillie]

For those who are interested and are in range, the local radio station 3WM is on 1089KHz (1.089MHz). To my knowledge, there is no internet audio streaming of the radio station (sorry).

The local paper has some stories on it. http://www.mailtimes.com.au/

[Jen]

Wow Ken awsome video hope you have plenty off supplies at home :thumbsup:
The trip home from Melbourne to Swan Hill tookl us for ever the amount of deteors we had to take instead of a 4 hour trip it took us just over 6 hours there is water everywhere you turn :( The town Kerang 40km away from us has just been given an evacuation notice as all the roads in and out are about to be closed. There is no warnings for Swan Hill at the moment (fingers crossed)

[Chillie]

Keep listening to radio 3SH Jen. The water is headed your way.

There is still plenty of water lying around in Horsham almost 24 hours after the peak. It will take a while for it to drain away.

[ballaratdragons]

News Flash on TV at 2:45pm today (Wed 9th Jan) they are right now evacuating towns east of Horsham and have put some other towns on standby!
The Floowaters are still rising in already flooded areas.

Is this ever going to end????

[Alchemy]

Just spent half hour trying to find what I would consider a reasonable Victorian flood map, the only one I could find is the BOM one with a couple of red triangles saying this that and another river would expect severe flooding.

I would have though a far more detailed map with flood zones could be viewed giving locals an idea if they could expect to be inundated. But nope.

In this day and age of technology information should be easily accessible, I remember the fires 2 years ago getting information was worse than pulling teeth..... Nothings changed.

My hat goes off to the volunteers who pitch in at a time of crisis, but govt departments and such don't rise to the occasion in the same way, they will have this info in some dusty back drawer. Same occurred on black Saturday they had a map showing expected fire activity and who saw it ????

Hope you all stay safe, prepare for the worst and hope for the best.

[jjjnettie]

Good advise Clive.
All you can do is ride it out and don't take ANY risks.

My thoughts are with you all. hugs

[Jen]

Yep Chillie it sure is heading our way the back of our house there is a channel (thats its path of direction) :eyepop: hubby getting some sand delivered here on the weekend (just incase) to look after the house we are in a flood line area :help:
Here is a picture of the power substation in Kerang which is 40km from Swan Hill if this goes under there goes our power :sadeyes: Taken early today
88219

[CometGuy]

Jen thats crazy, I've got rels near Kerang. We are just trying to contact them to make sure their OK.

T

[ballaratdragons]

Yep, you are correct Clive.

Absolutely no useful maps of the Victorian floods!

Here's the best one I can find and it really doesn't help much: (the purple dots are road closures) http://www.bordermail.com.au/specialfeature.aspx?id=4376

Zooming in and clicking on icons doesn't tell much. Mainly which roads are closed.
Wide angle shows just how much of OZ is affected!

[erick]

I think you will need to go to Local Govt websites.

Here is our local one:-

http://www.moorabool.vic.gov.au/?id=1010230017CF07E574D1FAE0CA2574C D000DCDFF

Yikes! A 1 in 50 year event here and we become part of the Werribee River :sadeyes:

[ballaratdragons]

Eric, Clive means an up-to-date current map of where is flooded right now so you can see if your house is about to go under.

QLD had several such maps on the internet and they had almost no time to prepare them. They showed the flood location down to the street, updated every few hours.
Yet, Victoria has had days to prepare a site for a current flood map and there isn't any.
The Local Council ones are old models for 'the likely extent' of any flooding.

[Chillie]

This PDF gives you an idea what we went through in Horsham. I live in Horsham North so I wasn't affected.:) I gave directions on how to get to it in one of my posts earlier on this page. Most of the water has gone downstream now but the river is still high.

3WM http://www.3wm.com.au/ now has a live radio link now:

http://player.streamtheworld.com/liveplayer.php?CALLSIGN=ACE_3WM

Jeparit community meeting broadcast LIVE at 7:00pm tonight. Click on the link above to hear it.

[ballaratdragons]

Chillie, how accurate was their 1 year old prediction map?
Did it match the current flood?

[Chillie]

Fairly accurate once the map was updated from a 1 in 100 year flood to a 1 in 200 year flood.

Jeparit community meeting on NOW! click on link in previous post.

[ballaratdragons]

Listening in now :thumbsup:

[Alchemy]

Yes chille , that's exactly the kind of map that needs to be easily accessed for all residents of flood areas, the main govt emergency warning site should provide the links so at least people have an idea of what to expect, I know the situations can be quite variable, but at least an indication is given.

Thanks for showing that some evidence is available..... You've just got to find it.... ( not always easy)

Cheers all and stay safe. Material things can be replaced, lives can't.

[Chillie]

I think most of the streets are open in Horsham now including the intersection of Firebrace St (Horsham's main street) and Hamilton Rd where the swimming pool is and Harvey Norman's car park.

Here are some links for pics of Horsham flood:

North East of Horsham:
http://www.mailtimes.com.au/multimedia/images/full/1078169.jpg

Slide show of flood:
http://www.mailtimes.com.au/multimedia/19703/horsham-flood.aspx

Aerial photos of the record flood:
http://www.mailtimes.com.au/multimedia/19700/wimmera-flood-use-fullscreen-to-view.aspx

Hay bales float down Wimmera River:
http://www.mailtimes.com.au/multimedia/19652/hay-bales-float-down-wimmera-river.aspx

All links come from The Wimmera Mail-Times http://www.mailtimes.com.au

[Astroman]

I really hope this water goes down to all affected in ALL regions of the areas that are getting flooded out. It's amazing to see all this water, while being sunbathed here in Adelaide with beautiful weather, almost makes you feel guilty for having it.

I am glad many people escaped from the waters, and hope that the waters do disperse, especially since I'll be travelling through Vic in early March... I know a few people in Vic, some I wouldn't mind under water (no one on this forum BTW), but for those others, I wish you all the best, and good luck with it all...

[Jen]

It sure is getting closer to Swan Hill now :help: Saturday looks like its going to be the day :shrug: We getting a trailer load of sand dropped of tomorrow so i think i will be sandbagging all day tomorrow :help:Scary stuff there is so much water :sadeyes:

[Chillie]

Stay safe Jen and keep put of the water. You don't know what is in it, like chemicals and sewage.

[danielsun]

Stay safe Jen! I sure hope you don't need to put your goggles and flippers back on!
Take care.