© ABC NewsA man floats on blow-up tube down Langbourne Drive, in Narre Warren South
Eleanor Hall: The wild weather associated with Cyclone Yasi caused more flooding in Victoria on the weekend. Heavy downpours on Friday night and into Saturday caused flash flooding across the state.
While Melbourne was deluged, once again the state's north-west seems to have suffered the worst of it. For some people it's their fourth flood in recent months, as Simon Lauder reports.
Simon Lauder: Two years since Black Saturday, bushfires are on the minds of many Victorians. It's a contrast to the problem overcoming much of the state this summer.
Humidity from Ex-Tropical Cyclone Yasi combined with a cold front over Victoria late on Friday, plunging many parts of the state into flood once again. Amateur video posted online gives a sense of the incredible deluge at Mildura, which received a year's worth of rain in less than two days.
(Extract from video from YouTube)
Man: I've never seen so much water in my life. Look at this.
Woman: Imagine Queensland.
Man: This is unbelievable.
Woman: That's in a space of two hours.
Man: Yup.
(End of extract)
Simon Lauder: Dozens of homes were flooded in Mildura and at nearby Irymple where street pumps failed. Local resident Ainslee says the effects will be underfoot for a while to come.
Ainslee: There is a lot of streets being blocked off still. Just a lot of blocks, they are just full, full of water.
Simon Lauder: The rain caused chaos in Melbourne where flooded waterways overtook roads and railways.
Glenn Salt lives at Narre Warren, in Melbourne's outer south-east. He told ABC local radio the water was knee deep throughout his house.
Glenn Salt: Looking forward it is probably Thursday before we'll be inside the house, there is four foot of water right the way around the house and the complex and of course, we've got steps up to the house so we are right in it.
Simon Lauder: Priya Sudhakar says her street in Cranbourne North was like a river.
Priya Sudhakar: The drains couldn't take it in because there was just too much water too fast.
Simon Lauder: The flooding south-east of Melbourne will add to the agricultural damage bill, as it soaks into potato, cauliflower and broccoli plantations.
The widespread flooding prompted a warning from the State Emergency Service which says too many people have been taking to the streets on inflatable toys and boards, risking their lives, but in the north of the state, the water is a novelty no longer.
Linda Moor: We've, yeah, just been flooded out for the fourth time in as many months.
Simon Lauder: Linda Moor is a caretaker of the Rochester caravan park. She says many of the park's permanent residents have been without power since the first flood last year.
Linda Moor: We'd only just got it cleaned up from the last flood and yeah, it has gone under again. We've had no power since the last flood and yeah, I don't know where all the water comes from at times.
Simon Lauder: So four times in how long? When was the first one?
Linda Moor: Ah, the first one was in September so we had one in September, one in November, one in January and now one in February.
Simon Lauder: Are you getting used to it?
Linda Moor: Ah, yes. Well, do you ever get used to it (laughs) but yeah, it is just the clean-up, like it's just so much mud and silt and you know, everything just gets covered and it just takes a long time to get stuff cleaned back up again and then you just get there and yeah.
Simon Lauder: With all you've been through, what was your reaction on the weekend when you got another downpour?
Linda Moor: Here we go again. That is about all you can do like what can you do? You can't fight nature, it is just the way it is. We'll just have to live with it because the drought has broken so we'll just have to learn to live with it, no doubt.
Simon Lauder: The extra rain will prolong the flood for north-west Victoria, much of which has been under water since last month. Around Kerang and Cohuna, roads are cut and farms have been inundated once again. The Gannawarra Shire's Mayor, Max Fehring.
Max Fehring: Getting the school bus route to going, that is still a problem. We've got schools not open because we can't get the buses around and obviously to get the real community back up and going again because we need the activity and the wealth it creates for the whole of the community and that is our prime aim at the moment. The rural sector has really copped a lot in this whole flood event.
Simon Lauder: The State Emergency Service says it has taken more than 6,000 calls for help since Friday. Spokesman Lachlan Quick says he is hoping the volunteers will get a rest soon.
Lachlan Quick: We've had a one significant event a month and the challenge we had this time is that we were still on alert from the event that happened in early January so getting pretty tough at stages.
The Bureau of Meteorology says Victoria could be in for more storms and showers late in the week.
Eleanor Hall: Simon Lauder reporting.
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