DESPITE the early peak of the Murray River at Swan Hill on Tuesday, the prospect of further rain is keeping emergency services on alert.
The peak was lower than anticipated, at moderate flood level.
State Emergency Service deputy chief officer and incident controller Alistair Drayton said the river had been forecast to reach major flood levels on Friday, with the potential to peak at a higher level early next week.
“The good news, now that it has peaked at 4.6 metres, is that that relieves a lot of the concerns of the local communities,” Mr Drayton told The Guardian.
“But there is still enormous risk in the area, all the tributaries and rivers still flowing quite swiftly, so there is still risk in the immediate environment.”
After Thursday's rain, and with further falls predicted over the next couple of days, the weather is still causing concern.
“The forecast at the moment is suggesting that widespread we will see 30-50mm, with high localised falls possibly up to 100mm across the entire Loddon catchment,” Mr Drayton said.
“Given the amount of saturation, the ground is just absolutely sodden, so any additional rain coming over the weekend will create a high risk of flash flooding.
“So we do need to be made cognisant, if going out for example, drive to the conditions and look at websites such as VicRoads or VicTraffic to ensure that (drivers) do know safe travel routes. But invariably my message would be if people don’t need to travel over the coming days, don’t.”
With the peak reached, a Swan Hill town meeting that was scheduled for Sunday has been cancelled.
“The original intent for that meeting was to give the Swan Hill community assurance that emergency services here in Swan Hill had pretty much all the bases covered,” Mr Drayton said.
“We had all the works done, with the great contribution of volunteers and the community and terrific network of flood wardens that have just brought invaluable reference and knowledge and history to us that enabled us to work with them, as well as the community and all of the volunteer organisations, to ensure that we had a level of assurance and readiness for the Swan Hill community.”
Mr Drayton said the incident control centre’s attention was shifting to communities further downstream, while keeping a watchful eye on Swan Hill.
“As we go further north we start to see the influence of the Wakool, the Edward and other tributary rivers come into play,” he said.
“I don’t want people to sort of feel like because it didn’t reach the predicted peak here in Swan Hill that it is going to be the same further west or downstream.
"It is certainly not that case because there are other rivers that will affect the levels.
“So we are still continuing to do an enormous amount of work, both with the communities and those volunteer organisations (and) the ADF.”
Community drop-in sessions were held in Piangil, Robinvale and Wemen yesterday.
Quambatook will host a community drop-in session on Tuesday at 6pm at Quambatook Hall. Others will be at Koondrook on Wednesday from 4.30pm and Leitchville at 6.30pm (locations to be announced).
“My thanks goes to all of the VICSES, CFA, Life Saving Victoria and indeed the community themselves and all of the communities right along the river for their contributions over the past few weeks,” Mr Drayton said.
