Early 2011 Victorian floods

Heavy rains flooded from 12 to 14 January 2011, large parts of western and central Australia. Particularly strong were the floods in Queensland and Victoria and there especially the northern and central regions.

Many of the towns in Victoria were already affected by flooding in September 2010, but the flood of 2011 was much more destructive. The flooded area was four times greater than it was then. This led to thousands of evacuations by the State Emergency Service (SES). On January 18, more than 51 cities and towns in Victoria were affected by the flooding, about 1,730 buildings were flooded and over 17,000 residential buildings were without power.

Affected Regions and Towns

Most affected were the cities and towns Horsham, Shepparton and Swan Hill as well as Charlton, Rochester, Carisbrook, Beaufort, Glenorchy, Rupanyup, Echuca, Bridgewater on Loddon, Creswick, Clunes, Kerang, Warracknabeal and Skipton.

The floods destroyed many roads and hundreds of road and rail links were broken. The floods devastated 51,700 hectares of grazing land, 41,200 hectares of arable land and 6,106 sheep were drowned. The Chamber of Commerce and the Farmers Union of Victoria went from a loss in hundreds of millions of A $ s and the Department of Primary Industries estimated the economic damage later to A $ 2 billion.

Kevin Parkyn, the chief meteorologist of the Australian Bureau of Meteorology has said that Victoria after a week of intense and fruitful rains 'm going through one of the worst floods in the history of the state, and according to Terry Ryan, the body responsible for the prediction of the Bureau of Meteorology meteorologists were the floods in terms of water depth and extent of the worst since the start of weather recording in western Victoria. The Premier of Victoria Ted Baillieu arranged the floods under the largest in the history of the state.

Background

The strongest La Niña that fell since 1973, led to floods in Victoria and Queensland. It was the heaviest rainfall of January, was ever reported in the history of Australia.

A deep trough over the South East of Australia led to tropical rainfall over the north of Australia and to a record of more than 96 % humidity. Violent precipitate and severe storms formed over Victoria and also to the north of Tasmania, western New South Wales and the eastern areas of South Australia.

During steady rain over Victoria emerged flash floods, the Halls Gap and Beaufort flooded and commercial and residential buildings destroyed. While in the past the water only swelled when the rainfall subsided, the watercourses were immediately informed of their banks and a rapid evacuation was necessary. Despite illuminative weather, the floods spread in January and February 2010, and further developed into what is known as the Inland Sea, which extended over the agricultural land in the north- west Victoria.

Early warning and evacuation

Snapping rivers led to evacuations in many other cities in central and western Victoria.

  • Allansford & Jubilee Park, Victoria - 10 people were evacuated on January 16 in the Archie Graham Centre and the Frank Street and Station Street had to be closed off by sandbags.
  • Charlton evacuated to Donald
  • Glenorchy
  • Rupanyup
  • Carisbrook - 1,000 people were evacuated to Maryborough
  • Creswick
  • Halls Gap
  • Kerang
  • Quambatook
  • Warracknabeal
  • Quantong
  • Dimboola
  • Jeparit
  • Kerang - 224 residents were evacuated
  • Horsham - 1,000 households were asked to leave their property
  • Cohuna
  • Barham
  • Beulah
  • Dimboola
  • Nelson

Affected rivers

Affected settlements

  • Beaufort - streams that flow into Lake Beaufort, rivers burst their banks, flooded the main streets of the city and more than 70 houses.
  • Ballarat - the rainfall record of 95 millimeters per square meter resulted in the flooding of the catchment area of ​​the River Yarrowee. 20 homes were flooded in the urban area and 10 in the suburbs of Miners Rest, as the Burrumbeet Creek overflowed its banks. This was also the residential areas in Alfredton and Delacombe. The overcrowding of Lake Wendouree for the first time happened again after 2002, because the lake had already been filled in 2010 after the dry period since 2007 with water. The Yarrowee River and Creswick Creek swelled without causing severe devastation.
  • Bridgewater On Loddon - reached the peak heights of the tide twice, the first on January 14 and the second on the following day. The water broke into about 50 houses as well as in the police station, caravan park, hotel and other commercial buildings.
  • Carisbrook - a total of 275 houses were up to five feet underwater.
  • Charlton - more than 400 houses were flooded. A substation had to be switched off, which concerned 8000 electricity consumption points of the city.
  • Creswick - was evacuated after the Creswick Creek overflowed its banks and flooded the city center. 35 residential and commercial buildings were damaged by the largest flood that is listed in the city's history.
  • Echuca - 200 unprotected homes were flooded by dams on 16 January, when the apex of the water reached its highest point.
  • Halls Gap - was evacuated after a flash flood and landslides cut the city.
  • Horsham - The flood divided the city into two parts and flooded 600 houses. The areas near the center stood a meter under water. The flooding has been described as a 200-year event.
  • Kerang - Levee was abandoned on 19 January, as the flood drove nearly 4,000 people.
  • Melbourne - the flash flood of the Yarra River, which occurred in South Yarra on the banks of the Maribyrnong River and, flooded the streets of Footscray, South Melbourne, North Melbourne, St Kilda, Research, Tarneit and Maribyrnong.
  • Newbridge - The flood destroyed the main areas of Newbridge Recreation Reserve.
  • Rochester - the worst flooding in the history of the place in which 200 houses were flooded, representing 80 % of the community.
  • Winding road
  • Shepparton ( and Mooroopna ) - over 50 houses were flooded and 500 houses cut off from the outside world
  • Skipton - was flooded by 1 meter high water affected was the main street of the village, a pub, a supermarket, a pharmacy and 9 residential and 20 commercial buildings. This city had already been badly hit by the flood of 2010.
  • Swan Hill
  • Warracknabeal

Infrastructure

Road closures

Further damage

The flooding also affected the electricity supply. The households that were supplied by the Charlton Power Station, were not given more power, because this power station was flooded and cut off from the water.

  • Bendigo
  • Ballarat and Ballan ( 2,100 households)
  • Kyneton
  • Swan Hill (2,400 households) on 20 January
  • Gisborne ( 500 households)
  • Macedon and Wooden (1700 households)
  • Maldon
  • Wedderburn
  • St Arnaud
  • Donald
  • Birchip
  • Wycheproof
  • Boort

Dead

On January 18, a police officer found the body of a boy on the Goulburn River, which was missing in a Billabong since January 17 in Shepparton in north-eastern Victoria.

Reactions

The Australian Defence Force ( ADF) assisted the Victorian State Emergency Service ( VICSES ) from 14 January 2011.

The Premier of Victoria Ted Ballieu came from 17 January to the affected areas, and committed to the aid of A $ 7 million to the A $ 5 million for providing for the necessary cleaning and restoration, and A $ 1 million public support of the Red Cross. On January 18, the federal government said a help of A $ 4 million to restore to.

Four features of the 4th Reserve Response Force ( 4RRF ) under the command of the headquarters of the 4th Brigade of Australia were used conductive under the Rapid Impact Assessment ( RIA), to gain information about the consequences of flooding to the community and the private infrastructure.

The ADF personnel provided 200,000 sandbags, various emergency facilities, fuel, sand, water and beds for many of the flood victims. The RAAF transported 76,000 ADF sandbags from January 22 to 23 from Townsville and Brisbane to Melbourne.

On January 24, was the Rapid Impact Assessments cities Charlton, Hamilton, Glenorchy, Halls Gap, Rochester, Bridgewater, Carisbrook, Dunolly, Clunes, Creswick, Appin South, Kerang West, Skipton, Newbridge and Horsham fully available. On the same day, the ADF provided two helicopters from the Royal Australian Navy Seahawk (RAN ) and 40 land vehicles to study the consequences of flooding are available.

The Australian Prime Minister, Julia Gillard of the (Australian Labor Party ), came on 28 January 2011 for the first time in the flooded area of Victoria. Ted Ballieu of the Liberal Party, the incumbent Prime Minister of Victoria, the Prime Minister publicly criticized that they have forgotten their home country because they have sparked a controversial discussion on the elimination of consequences of flooding devastated Queensland.

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