Australia's Victoria State Braces for Weekend Heavy Rainstorms, Flooding

Victoria, Australia’s second-most- populous state, is bracing for heavy storms and floods, with as much as 100 millimeters (4 inches) of rainfall expected in the state’s northeast this weekend, emergency services said.

“Consistent July rainfall in the northeast catchments means that they are already saturated and any further rainfall will make its way directly into creeks and rivers, with the likely effect being moderate and potentially major flooding,” Victoria’s State Emergency Service said on its website. “Severe weather warnings for damaging winds have been issued for much of the state.”

Inclement weather and flood warnings have been issued throughout Victoria, the Bureau of Meteorology said. Melbourne, the state capital, with a population of about 4 million, is set to experience thunderstorms and winds as strong as 65 kilometers (40 miles) an hour today, it said.

The army has been called in to evacuate homes in central Victoria as torrential rain brings severe floods, the Herald Sun newspaper reported. The worst hit places are Creswick, Ballarat and Maryborough in the state’s central highlands, it said.

Victoria is still recovering from the “Black Saturday” bushfires on Feb. 7, 2009, which left 173 dead.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jason Scott in Perth at jscott14@bloomberg.net

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