General News
24 December, 2023
Minor flooding, power outages hit on Christmas Day
SOME Loddon roads have flooded and houses are without power as rain continues to fall across the region this morning. There are already reports of Sections of the Wimmera Highway around Newbridge, Llanelly and Tarnagulla with water cross the road...
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SOME Loddon roads have flooded and houses are without power as rain continues to fallacross the region this morning.
There are already reports of Sections of the Wimmera Highway around Newbridge, Llanelly and Tarnagulla with water cross the road after more than 12 hours of constant thunderstorms and rain.
Several requests for assistance have also been logged since 7am in Wedderburn including along the Nardoo Creek.
Power supplies around Jarklin are expected to be restored shortly while outages affecting Prairie, Dingee, Pompapiel, Tandarra, Mitiamo, Campbells Forest and Raywood areas are likely to be fixed by 11am. Supplies have been restored at Logan and Shelbourne after outages yesterday.
More than 75mm of rain has been recorded in some Loddon areas since yesterday afternoon. Rain is forecast to continue well into this afternoon.
A flood watch has been in place for the Loddon River since late yesterday afternoon.
The watch says:
A deepening low pressure trough extending across the state Sunday evening (Christmas Eve) is expected to produce isolated showers and thunderstorms. This will linger over the state on Monday and is expected to produce moderate to heavy rainfall with thunderstorms. A surface low is expected to move slowly northward and then eastwards into the Tasman Sea during late Tuesday (Boxing Day). Showers and thunderstorms are expected to gradually contract to the east of the State during Tuesday.
Widespread rainfall totals of 10 to 40mm are expected in the warning areas during Sunday evening and Monday (Christmas Day), with isolated heavier falls of 70 to 80mm possible. The heaviest falls are more likely to be experienced with thunderstorms in the late Monday afternoon and evening. Rain will move over North East and Eastern catchments on Tuesday.
Catchments across Western and North Central Victoria are dry, while catchments across East and North East Victoria are moderately wet.
Although catchments in Western, North Western and Central areas are dry, river level rises are likely in the areas of heaviest rainfall. Isolated minor flooding may develop at some locations, particularly in the upper parts of the catchment in the flood watch area from Monday afternoon and during Tuesday.