Vic: Sandbag levees to be watched all night in flood town

AAP General News (Australia)
12-28-1999
Vic: Sandbag levees to be watched all night in flood town

MELBOURNE, Dec 28 AAP - Teams of State Emergency Services (SES) volunteers kept watch
over sandbag levees overnight in the central Victorian town of Carisbrook to guard against

further flood damage.

Flood water which invaded 15 homes in the town and the local petrol station yesterday
have begun to recede, but more rain is forecast.

The SES said yesterday's floods throughout the state had caused one of its largest
operations this year.

More than 800 calls were received in the 24 hours from Sunday evening.

The Bureau of Meteorology warned of possible further storms, with a low pressure system
likely to persist until Wednesday and another on its way.

The Melbourne Cricket Ground resembled a lake when play in the second test match between
India and Australia was abandoned yesterday afternoon, with just 12 overs played in the
second session.

Extra SES units from the four nearby towns of Castlemaine, Marong, Tongala and Rochester
were in Carisbrook to help maintain the levees. Early yesterday the efforts of 40 SES
volunteers who built two sandbag walls to protect homes in the path of the flood waters
saved many more homes.

In Melbourne the Broadmeadows unit, in Melbourne's north, had faced a difficult 24
hours, with flash floods leading to more than 120 calls for help in the area.

Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Ken Dickinson said the low over central and
eastern Victoria was slow moving and further rain was expected.

"We are not out of the woods by long shot," he said.

AAP sjg/bm

KEYWORD: FLASH DAYLEAD

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