Australia’s East Coast is facing more serious damage, with the Murray River reaching its highest level in more than 100 years on the Victorian and NSW border while Northern NSW prepares for major flooding.
The Murray River tipped 94.8 meters above mean sea level at the Victorian town of Echuca — which is just across the river from the NSW town of Moama.
The river’s expected to reach a peak of at least 95 meters over the weekend, per The Sydney Morning Herald.
The highest levels were back in 1870 when waters of 96.20 meters were recorded in Echuca. In 1916, flood waters reached 95.28 meters. And the current level has eclipsed that of the 1993 floods, where the Murray reached 94.77 metres.
Echuca has a new waterfall. Water from the Murray River is flowing over the existing levee near the library, into a large pool in the nature reserve. #vicfloods pic.twitter.com/JdCHVyiyn6
— Bransen Gibson (@BransenGibson) October 21, 2022
Per The Guardian, the Echuca community has laid around 200,000 sandbags in preparation for the increased flooding.
Victorian SES chief officer Tim Wiebusch called for people in affected areas to evacuate.
“We don’t want to be rescuing people. Our strongest message is evacuate now,” he said.
In a similar vein, NSW Emergency Services Minister Steph Cooke said, “We are literally sandbagging the state at present”.
“We have dispatched over 500,000 sandbags to communities like Moama and across NSW over the last two and a half weeks,” she said.
According to Cooke, around 30,000 sandbags are being delivered every day. Far out.
It’s expected that areas of Northern NSW could be hit with major flooding too, with Cooke mentioning the already-devastated town of Lismore. Moree is also expected to be seriously impacted.
From Moree to Moama, communities across NSW have seen devastating impacts from flooding today. With severe weather forecast to impact this week, visit Bureau and @NSWSES for updates & warnings. In a life-threatening emergency call Triple Zero (000).
📷 #nswrfs Moree Brigade pic.twitter.com/R8T0zofzUG
— NSW RFS (@NSWRFS) October 22, 2022
“There is not a single part of NSW I’m not concerned about at this point in time,” Cooke said.
And in more bad weather news, 9News has reported that Brisbane could cop 150 millimetres of rain while other areas of Queensland face serious storms.
⚠️ Severe Weather Warning update: risk of heavy to locally intense rainfall in #SEQld today & Sunday. Dangerous and life-threatening flash flooding possible. Flood Watch also current. Warning details & updates: https://t.co/zw6FXgch6X
Follow @QldFES advice #IfItsFloodedForgetIt pic.twitter.com/y51RWUmLkO— Bureau of Meteorology, Queensland (@BOM_Qld) October 22, 2022
A 3,500 kilometre band of rain was predicted to hit Australia’s east coast over the weekend. Great.
There’s a bunch of evacuation orders for both NSW and Victoria, as well as many Bureau of Meteorology flood warnings. You can find NSW’s flood warnings here and Victoria’s here.
Water levels are expected to keep rising over the coming days, so keep your eyes and ears peeled on warnings and updates from your local SES branch and the Bureau of Meteorology.
