Advertisement

Melbourne plagued by flash flooding, hundreds of emergency calls

It's about to get very very wet.

It's about to get very very wet. Photo: ABC

After a weekend of hot, sunny weather, parts of Melbourne have received almost a month’s worth of rain in one night, damaging buildings and causing flash flooding.

The State Emergency Service responded to more than 400 calls for help between 5:00pm on Sunday night and 6:00am on Monday morning.

Melbourne’s inner south-west bore the brunt of the inclement weather, along with Geelong, Ballarat, Frankston and some coastal areas.

Andrew Murton from the SES said the damage was widespread.

“[There’s been] flooding, so that’s just obviously on the roads just with the amount of rain that comes down, building damage, mainly a result of blocked gutters creating some issues in people’s homes,” he said.

We did have quite a few calls for assistance for trees down, but thankfully there wasn’t a lot of wind with the rain.”

Rod Dickson, senior forecaster at the weather bureau said the worst of the rain came down in two hours from 6:00pm on Sunday.

“That brought the heaviest rain, where we did see some reports of flash flooding through out the Melbourne area,” he said.

“Since that time there has been steady rainfall overnight as well, which is still continuing this morning.”

Mr Dickson said the heavy falls meant some parts of the city had almost already reached the February average.

“We’ve seen as much as 40-50 millimetres across parts of eastern metropolitan Melbourne, generally a little bit less over the west, around 20-30 millimetres, but in some areas that does amount to almost the entire February average rainfall in just one night,” he said.

The rain is expected to clear this afternoon, but the sub-20 degrees Celsius temperatures are expected to remain for the rest of the day.

Advertisement
Stay informed, daily
A FREE subscription to The New Daily arrives every morning and evening.
The New Daily is a trusted source of national news and information and is provided free for all Australians. Read our editorial charter.
Copyright © 2024 The New Daily.
All rights reserved.