The months leading up to October 2022 were wet.
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Rain was falling across Victoria. Dams were full. The ground was waterlogged.
At McPherson Media’s head office in Shepparton, journalists and editors had met several times with SES personnel.
The SES was advising that flooding along rivers across the state was inevitable.
It was a matter of when, not if.
Communities across Victoria held flood preparedness meetings, and local people rushed to fill sandbags and move valuables to high shelves.
On the evening that the floods arrived, Seymour Telegraph journalist Bianca Hall, knowing her home was likely to flood, had set up camp in the Telegraph office on Station St.
When the ‘evacuate now’ warning flashed on the VicEmergency app, the area that was expected to be inundated included that office.
But it was too late to leave.
That was the evening of Thursday, October 13. Luckily the office did not flood.
During three days of flooding, Seymour SES responded to 206 calls for help.
The Goulburn River peaked at 3am on Friday, October 14, reaching 8.26m.
If there was one silver lining, it was that the water started to recede not long after.
It was down to 8.06m by 7.30am.
By Friday morning, 150 local residents had evacuated to the Seymour emergency relief centre.
SES Seymour controller Christine Welsh said SES crews split in two after an initial all-hands-on-deck response.
On the Friday, she told the Telegraph that one crew was sent home overnight to swing into action on Friday morning.
“Today, we will have a lot of requests for assistance getting people out of houses,” she said at the time.
The evacuation orders were put in place just after 10pm (Thursday, October 13), with residents given the choice to leave.
Ms Welsh said many had decided to stay but later required SES assistance.
Evacuations and rescues were mainly done by boat, with Victoria Police providing resources through the Water Police and Search and Rescue units.
The CFA and the Department of Land, Water and Planning assisted in sandbagging and removing fallen trees.
Ms Welsh said there were more calls for assistance from Wednesday to Friday than the entirety of 2021.
While this was all going on, many shops had to close.
However, the Seymour community was lucky in that O’Keefe’s IGA was open for much-needed supplies, with Coles closed and Woolworths down to limited hours.
On the Friday afternoon, groceries were adequately stocked and fresh produce was in high demand — but there seemed to be just enough to go around.
Before long, floodwaters headed downstream as other communities braced themselves for what Seymour had just experienced.
Once the river was back to a more familiar level, the scale of the clean-up was clear — and it would take some time.
Seymour Telegraph