Thursday 8 March 2012

Australian floods


Wagga Wagga levee holds

Stuff, 7 March, 2012

Some Wagga Wagga residents should be allowed back to their homes on Wednesday after the southwestern NSW city's levee held fast against the raging, flooded Murrumbidgee River overnight.

But the focus for emergency services now turns to neighbouring Riverina communities, with hundreds of people evacuated from homes in Griffith, North Yenda and Beelbangera on Wednesday morning.

The Murrumbidgee River peaked at 10.56 metres on Tuesday night, just below the forecast 10.90 metre peak and just millimetres below the level that would have put dangerous strain on Wagga Wagga's levee.

It held strong, sparing more than 3000 CBD properties from floods.

As dawn broke over NSW's largest inland city, river levels were falling.

"The river has peaked and the task now for us is to try and get people back in their homes," State Emergency Service (SES) deputy commissioner Dieter Geske told the Seven Network.
Federal MP for the Riverina Michael McCormack told the ABC's Lateline program on Tuesday night: "Certainly a sense of relief has overcome Wagga tonight because it looks as though we've dodged a bullet."

But elsewhere the drama was just beginning.

More than 600 people were evacuated from 200 properties in Griffith, nearby North Yenda and Beelbangera.

Forbes, in NSW's central west, also remains a major concern for authorities, with authorities on high alert for more flooding.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard will visit Wagga Wagga on Wednesday to see damage caused by the floods.

NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell said it will be weeks or months before the real cost of the crisis is known, but said it will take at least half a billion dollars to repair state roads damaged by flooding.

"What Julia Gillard will see today is the devastation caused by these floods," he told Macquarie Radio Network

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.