The situation in Wye River

Dean and Tracy Sheldrick and their three children were staying at the Lorne Foreshore Caravan Park in their camper trailer on holidays from Bendigo when the flooding began.

“We saw the river start to come up quite rapidly, and then the park staff came running through the camp saying that everyone needs to evacuate,” Dean Sheldrick said. “It was probably about 10 minutes before we got our stuff together and in that time we were in ankle deep water.”

Tracy Sheldrick said the situation quickly progressed from “that river’s going a bit fast” to “we’ve got to get out of here”.

After they were evacuated, the family stayed overnight at the Mantra hotel in Lorne and have been waiting at the entrance to the caravan park for it to reopen so they could retrieve their camping trailer and possessions.

“We just want to go home,” Tracy Sheldrick said.

The Bureau of Meteorology recorded 175 millimetres of rain in the Mount Cowley area near Lorne in six hours on Thursday, and 186.2 millimetres in the 24 hours to 9am on Friday. It is the most rain ever recorded at the site, eclipsing the previous record of 123.2mm on September 30, 2021.

There were 229 calls for assistance statewide in the 24 hours to midday on Friday, State Control Centre spokeswoman Dharni Giri spokeswoman said. It was previously believed there were up to seven water rescues in the Surf Coast area, but Giri said the exact number was still being confirmed.

“We are aware of dozens of vehicles, including cars and caravans, impacted by the flood water,” she said.

Ambulance Victoria said a man believed to be in his 60s was taken to a local hospital for treatment for an upper body injury. The spokesperson said they understood the patient had been winched from floodwaters by Victoria Police.

A reduced flash flood warning was issued by the SES overnight, with a caution that hazards remain in the area.

The Great Ocean Road was on Friday closed to the public in both directions between Lorne and Skenes Creek as the Cumberland Bridge was assessed for structural integrity, which Giri said was due to a “large number” of vehicles caught in floodwaters against the bridge.

Locals and holidaymakers can access properties through traffic management checkpoints, she said.

“Caravan parks are likely to remain closed in that area for the next few days, while we work through the response to some of the debris and damage that has been caused,” she said.

“Although it’s an advice message that the threat is reduced, we are asking community to remain vigilant that heavy rainfall has increased the potential for landslips and debris across roads.”

There are emergency relief centres set up at Lorne’s Stribling Reserve in Otway Street, and at the Apollo Bay P12 College in Pengilley Avenue, however capacity is limited.

“Capacity and amenities at these emergency relief centres is limited. Those who are able to leave the region to alternative accommodation are encouraged to do so,” the SES said.

Loading

At the emergency relief centre in Lorne, dozens of families who had been evacuated clustered inside on Friday. The centre coordinator said she had managed two centres within a week, one for the bushfires in Colac and one for flooding in Lorne.

Surf Coast Shire Mayor Libby Stapleton was at the emergency relief centre and said only about four people had to stay there overnight because everyone else was able to find accommodation elsewhere.

Many of those evacuated stayed at the Lorne Surf Lifesaving Club, which housed around 40 people, and residents also opened up their homes to those with nowhere to stay.

“The community has been incredible,” Stapleton said. “The school used its bus to get people to the relief centre, the op shop turned up with blankets and clothes, and we’ve had food coming in from across the Surf Coast and from a Sikh community group in Geelong. The local church has been up here since 6am this morning cooking breakfast for everyone.”

Stapleton said the caravan parks in Lorne, Cumberland River, Kennett River and Wye River would remain closed until they were assessed.

“Emergency services need to go through and assess them to make sure there’s no risk of electrocution or biological contamination,” she said. “It’s going to take some time.”

The intensity of the rainfall and devastating effects of flash flooding took holidaymakers by surprise, but a Bureau of Meteorology spokesman said the agency had acted as quickly as it could.

“The Bureau of Meteorology has been briefing emergency services on the risk of thunderstorms with heavy rain this week, ahead of the expected peak day yesterday,” he said.

“The focus of the heavy rain was expected to be over Gippsland, with severe thunderstorm warnings issued for heavy to locally intense rainfall in this region. The Bureau of Meteorology also briefed agencies on the risk of rain over the Otways.”

He said the bureau monitored conditions closely on Thursday, and by the time 45 millimetres had fallen in one hour at Mount Cowley about 11am, it issued a severe thunderstorm warning for heavy rainfall that could lead to flash flooding at 11:57am.

“This warning was soon escalated to include intense rainfall with the risk of flash flooding over the Surf Coast as the rainfall observations continued to climb rapidly at Mt Cowley. This warning also prompted the SES to issue their own Watch and Act warning for the area.”

Miriam Bradbury, a senior meteorologist at the weather bureau, said that while most rain had fallen on Thursday, people in the flood-affected areas needed to be mindful of the heavily saturated grounds in coming days.

“We could see patchy showers in the area today, down that surf coast, but rainfall totals are not expected to be anywhere near as high as what we saw yesterday,” she said.

“That was driven by a severe thunderstorm bringing intense rain, and we’re not currently expecting any storms in the area … there is a bit of rain on the way, but it should be patchy and significantly less than what we saw yesterday.

“The main thing for campers and communities in that area is that the ground is still really, really saturated and really unstable after yesterday, when so much rain has fallen in a short space of time, and that’s what led to these landslips, as well as the flash flooding. It is still a day to be mindful and to be cautious.”

Despite the heavy rains and flooding emergency along the coast, Bradbury said the showers on Thursday would have had little impact on parts of the state still battling bushfires.

“We have seen some pretty gusty winds overnight, and we are expecting to see some fresh and gusty southerly winds today, so it’s still going to be fairly mild. We’ve got that chance of showers around as well, but the fresh and gusty winds potentially could make conditions a little bit challenging for firefighters on the ground,” she said.

Loading

“Unfortunately, the rain we saw yesterday and the bit of rain we might see today will really struggle to reach any of those significant ongoing fires across the state. It’s more likely they’ll get a drop or two reaching the grounds.”

Victorian Environment Minister Steve Dimopoulos said the flooding was “unexpected” and that the Bureau of Meteorology hadn’t predicted the force of the floods.

“The scenes at Wye River and the Great Ocean Road were just terrifying,” he said. “It felt very unexpected. Over 160 millimetres of rain – it was extraordinary.”

“I understand from the reports this morning that the rain has subsided, but people still need to be very, very careful because of the saturation of the land around there.”

When asked if people in the area were given adequate warning of the flash flooding, Dimopoulos said it was a question for emergency services.

“The Bureau of Meteorology did predict some rain. I’m not sure they predicted that level of flash flooding, to be frank. It was quite terrifying for both campers and visitors and locals alike.”

Dramatic footage from the flooded area showed the devastating impact, as the rising tide either swept cars out to sea or crushed them on bridges.

On Thursday evening, police said a man in his 60s was rescued from a roof on the Cumberland River, while an estimated 1500 people were evacuated from the Wye River caravan park.

Hundreds of people visited relief centres set up at Apollo Bay and Lorne across the night, while dozens of home owners across Lorne and Wye River offered up their properties as emergency accommodation for stranded tourists.

The FoodWorks grocery store in Lorne, which was forced to shut its doors until further notice due to flash flooding, reopened at 8am.

The emergency unfolded so quickly it took just 20 minutes for a puddle of water in the carpark to spread and saturate the area, CCTV posted to social media showed.