People ordered to evacuate their homes in the Victorian town of Wangaratta on Friday night have been allowed to return after emergency services plugged a leak in the flood levee.
The Ovens river levee on Parfitt Road began leaking on Friday, prompting evacuation orders for about 120 properties.
At 9.45am Saturday, the evacuation order was lifted.
Ovens river in flood, Wangaratta pic.twitter.com/3emQsujgu2
— R O'Brien (@RobrienR) October 7, 2016
The State Emergency Service (SES) incident controller Andy Gillham told the ABC they would continue to monitor the levee for further leaks.
“Sometimes when you plug these leaks you end up with other leaks popping up along the levee,” he said. “We just want to make sure the levee is solid and safe.”
An SES spokesman told Guardian Australia that none of the properties had been inundated and that the levee appeared to be holding.
One house at Bundalong, about 40km downstream the Ovens river, where it meets the Murray, was flooded on Friday and six more are sandbagged.
“There’s still a lot of water making its way through that system so we would expect it to be impacting communities along the Murray for some time yet,” the spokesman said.
The floods have also reportedly caused “an influx” of snakes seeking dry ground in homes in the area, and stranded dozens of kangaroos looking to escape the rising waters.
The Ovens river peaked at 12.78m at Wangaratta overnight on Wednesday, 20cm shy of the one-in-100 year flood level in 1993, which caused widespread damage across the northeast and flooded 560 houses in the town. It also fell just shy of 2010 flood levels.
Sandbagging the dyke opposite Apex park with the SES #CFA #SES #Wangaratta pic.twitter.com/7cndxQcBfD
— Julian Fidge (@JulianFidge) October 7, 2016
The river dropped below major flood level - 12.7m - on Friday morning and was at 12.67m and falling on Friday afternoon.
“We’ve still got some worries in that Ovens River corridor, but we’ve got no immediate safety concerns for residents,” Gillham told the ABC.
There are 19 flood warnings and alerts active in the state.
Aerial photos show the King River in flood across Wangaratta today. pic.twitter.com/Z5AIUc7zBm
— Brandi Saari (@brandilmelb) October 7, 2016
There are branches down, water over roads, and bridges damaged in the area, and the SES has urged people to drive carefully and avoid using cruise control, “as it can lead to dangerous aquaplaning”.
It has also warned people not to drive through floodwaters, which it says is the main cause of death during floods.
