General News
8 January, 2024
Premier commits to assess shire flood impacts
VIDEO NEWS AND ONLINE STORY PREMIER Jacinta Allan said Victoria was seeing the impacts of a changing climate as storms and floods in the past fortnight have dumped more than 400mm on some Loddon communities. The member for Bendigo East told a medi...
VIDEO NEWS AND ONLINE STORY
PREMIER Jacinta Allan said Victoria was seeing the impacts of a changing climate as storms and floods in the past fortnight have dumped more than 400mm on some Loddon communities.
The member for Bendigo East told a media conference in Bendigo this afternoon that the Loddon Shire would be part of impact assessments of floods.
Ms Allansaid in response to questions from the Loddon Herald that she was concerned to hear more support was needed in flood recovery since 2022, now made worse by the three summer rain bombs, and would follow that up direct with council.
The Premier said central Victoria had had "a lot of bad weather in central Victoria" over the past fortnight.
"As the weather starts to stablise as we hope to see over the next few days we will be able to get in and do those assessments because also ... there is still parts of the Loddon Shire right now that are isolated, the roads are cut off, and there needs to be be time for that to clear and get in and do those impact assessments," she said.
"So we will ensure that the Loddon Shire is part of that impact assessment ... and support that might need to be provided we will follow up directly with the Loddon Shire."
The VicTraffic website has come under fire for delays in uploading road closure information however, Ms Allan said the site was a vast improvement on the2022 flood emergency.
She also also local knowledge on flood roads was invaluable to be fed into the statewide platform.
Ms Allen said that "based on my experience it is providing accurate information".
The premier also added weight to calls over the past fortnight for motorists not to drive through flood waters and said she found the number of people not heeding the message "deeply frustrating".
"We will keep reminding people," she said.