A string of rural Victorian flood rescues in the last week has prompted the State Emergency Service to issue a stern warning.
As Victoria received a delude of rain over the weekend, the SES was called out to more than a dozen rescues after people ignored warnings and drove through water.
SES regional agency commander Brendan Corboy said his volunteers attended more than 1100 calls for assistance between Friday and Monday.
"Unfortunately we had a real problem with people driving through flood waters and many of those were in regional areas," he said.
"I don't know whether rural people think because they've got a four-wheel-drive they can get through a flood but it's just unacceptable behaviour."
In the space of one hour, crews were called to four separate flood rescues between Wedderburn and Bendigo.
"It meant that our resources were stretched pretty thinly because at the same time we had a multi-vehicle pile-up on the Calder Freeway which had two fatalities," Mr Corboy said.
"So we were responding to people who have driven through flood waters and made that decision while diverting resources from people whose houses are being flooded or who had been seriously injured."
Hardest hit
Four of the six busiest units were in regional areas including Bendigo (56 incidents), Warragul (52), Emerald (50) and Kilmore (44) between Friday morning and Monday night.
Crews were called to 652 reports of fallen trees, 215 incidents of building damage, 193 building floods and 14 rescues.
The hardest hit area for flood and storm damage was central Victoria between Kilmore and Wedderburn.
"Our catchments are now saturated so if we get another tropical downburst or heavy rain we could see more flooding impacts over the coming months," he said.
Mr Corboy urged people to twice before driving through flood waters regardless of the location.
"It only takes 15 centimetres for a small vehicle to float so we ask people steer clear of driving through flood waters at anytime," he said.
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Bryce Eishold
Bryce is a senior journalist with Australian Community Media's Stock & Land where he reports on all aspects of agriculture. Bryce is also the president of the Rural Press Club of Victoria. Email Bryce at bryce.eishold@stockandland.com.au.
Bryce is a senior journalist with Australian Community Media's Stock & Land where he reports on all aspects of agriculture. Bryce is also the president of the Rural Press Club of Victoria. Email Bryce at bryce.eishold@stockandland.com.au.
