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BEECHWORTH - CHILTERN - RUTHERGLEN - STANLEY - YACKANDANDAH Friday, October 21, 2022
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Local researcher needs retiree help Page 6 WET SEASON: Riverine flooding at Chiltern’s MacKay Street last week has eased, with townships now preparing for potential flash flooding ahead of forecast stormy conditions this weekend. PHOTO: Kurt Hickling
Watch and wait SES crews p prepare p for heavyy rains amid regional g flash flooding g concerns
A WEEK after major riverine flooding impacted much of the North East, Indigo Shire crews are preparing for the prospect of more rain and flash flooding over the coming days. Catchments throughout the region have been left sodden as a result of consistent rain in recent weeks, resulting in significant flooding events at Rutherglen and Chiltern late last week. Beechworth SES unit con-
BY RYAN MALCOLM rmalcolm@ nemedia.com.au
troller Charles Dean said the local unit had provided a sandbag collection point over the previous two days as the township prepares for the worst, after dodging a flooding event last week. “Our experience is that we really haven’t had any flooding per se but because the
ground is so soggy and a little bit of wind we have quite a lot of trees down that we’ve to work on, blocking roads,” he said. “The ground is so saturated now, even though it looks dry on the surface where the sun hits, it’s just so sodden underneath. “We’re expecting there will be quite a bit of runoff and in those sort of circumstances flash flooding is something that Beechworth
can suffer from, so we’re trying to encourage people to sandbag now before the rain, because once the rain starts you can’t do anything, it’s too late.” Between 65 and 135mm is currently forecast to fall on the North East through to Wednesday, with the potential for high-intensity storm conditions both today and tomorrow. Mr Dean said high rainfall was not uncommon at this
time of year. “This is the start of a six to eight week period where we can expect bands of this rain to be coming across - it’s the storm season normally for this area,” he said. “It’s the time when we get our storms, we get a bit of wind and a bit of rain, and with the ground sodden and the catchments wet we can expect anything we get is going to have an impact.” ■ Continued page 2
Indigo Interview Page 9
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