Flooding in Kyabram: SES responds to 64 call-outs

According to the Bureau of Meteorology, from 9am Sunday, March 1 to 9am Monday March 2, 64.2mm of rain was recorded.

In the following 24 hours, to 9am Tuesday, a further 37.6mm filled the gauge.

Kyabram SES volunteers were helping out with sandbagging, preventing water entering buildings and building damage jobs including fixing leaking roofs.

Volunteers from Castlemaine, Rushworth and Rochester also attended to assist Kyabram volunteers with call-outs.

Mrs Webb said she would like to thank residents for putting bins on the street to prevent traffic entering flooded roads.

Mrs Webb advised residents to clear out their drains to help water move along.

“So if you’ve got a roadside drain, helping to clear that, (and) not driving through water that’s on the roads because the wake can actually cause the water to enter premises and do further damage,” she said.

But it wasn’t just homes and buildings impacted by the prolonged rain, local farms have also been hit hard.

Kyabram cherry farmer and grower Tony Depasquale spoke to the Country News on Monday, and said the rain would slow his process and damage crops, and his focus was on getting water off the trees.

He said he’d received 70mm in rain gauges but said other residents had recorded 200mm in town.

“I haven’t seen rain like this since year before last,” he said.

The Free Press asked residents how much rainfall they recorded, with residents in Kyabram responding with 132mm, 125mm in Lancaster and 100mm in Echuca.