HOMES have been flooded, roads cut and farms inundated as floodwaters turned large parts of the Ovens Valley into an inland sea yesterday.
At least 18 families sought refuge at Myrtleford’s emergency relief centre — their homes either flooded or under threat.
But Alpine Council emergency co-ordinator Trevor Britten yesterday feared the numbers would go higher, with many people taking refuge with friends and family.
Saturday’s deluge dumped more than 200mm on nearby Mount Buffalo, the water roaring down the Ovens, Buckland and Buffalo River valleys.
Yesterday residents and businesses in Myrtleford raced against time and rising floodwaters to secure their properties as SES volunteers provided almost 2000 sandbags — eight truckloads of sand — to protect businesses and homes along the Great Alpine Road.
The Happy Valley Creek had risen more than a metre in a matter of hours yesterday morning, water lapping at the back doors of businesses on the highway.
Homes on the Bright side of town were surrounded, pumps and sandbags holding back the rising water.
At Eurobin, at least one metre of water covered the Great Alpine Road near Wobonga Lane.
Homes closer to the river were reportedly underwater.
Myrtleford resident Trish Evans was watching the floodwaters rise on her Myrtleford home.
“We are about to start moving the furniture and electrical stuff to the front of the house,” she said.
“It has come up dramatically in the past few hours.
“There is nothing more we can do.”
At Eurobin, Penny Shirley was hoping the sandbags around her home would hold back the rising water.
Her partner had passed away seven days earlier and this was the third flood that had surrounded her Great Alpine Road home.
“I really didn’t need this. I spent most of last night waving down traffic as the water cut the road,” she said.
“Now it’s wait and see as to whether or not the sandbags will hold.
“They say these are once in 100-year floods — that means I must be closer to 300.”
Katrina Fraser had sandbags at the back door and the produce and fridges raised off the floor of her Myrtleford cafe.
“We have been watching it come up since 11pm last night and we have done all we can,” she said.
But Ken Osborne, whose home adjoins the submerged Rotary Park, wasn’t worried.
“I think I’m OK, I’m certainly not going anywhere,” he said.
Late yesterday, the Ovens River at Rocky Point, just a few kilometres north of Myrtleford, was 5.6 metres and rising.
In the 1993 and 1998 floods the water peaked at 5.86 metres and 5.92 metres respectively.
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