MELBOURNE, Australia — Dozens of rural Australian communities were sandbagging their properties Sunday as they nervously watched four river systems rising from heavy rains upstream.
More than 3,500 people have evacuated their homes in north-central Victoria state, where some towns are predicting the worst floods in 100 years.
“In some of our river systems, we are seeing unprecedented stream rises,” said State Emergency Service operations director Trevor White, saying the flood event was one of Victoria’s biggest since records began.
Neil Pankhurst, mayor of the Murray River port of Echuca, said the town’s levee was designed to withstand a one-in-100-year flood, which is dangerously close to what was expected late Sunday night.
“The levee is designed to contain a flood of the level we’re expecting, and we believe it will hold,” Pankhurst said.