ABOUT half of the 40 homes damaged by last week’s storms have been left unlivable, according to Wangaratta mayor Dean Rees.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Cr Rees said the road between Beechworth and Everton will likely be closed for months.
The Golden Ball bridge over Hodgsons Creek was badly damaged by Thursday’s heavy downpour and will need engineering assessments.
A large section of earth underneath the bridge was swept away.
Wangaratta Council staff have already fixed a bridge at Farmers Road.
Cr Rees said some staff had been starting work at 3am in a bid to clear the damage caused by flooding.
“There’s about 40 homes so far that we know of that have been flooded,” he said.
“So we really feel for our people up there.
“We’re very sorry this has happened, but we’ve got to rectify things now that it’s happened.”
Cr Rees spoke to one resident who had water inside his home to a depth of about 15 centimetres.
He said the damage bill would be worth millions of dollars.
“I just hope their insurance companies are sympathetic,” Cr Rees said of the homeowners.
A public meeting was held at Tarrawingee on Saturday.
Cr Rees said there were concerns the bases of the bridges hadn’t been cleaned out before the storms.
“The biggest problem is we have a lot of debris on the side of the road, firewood, fallen limbs.
“When a big rainfall comes in it all washes into the streams.
“It banks up at the bridge and causes all these houses to food, which is a terrible situation.”
The mayor said conversations would need to be held with VicRoads to see if there was a way to minimise the impact of such incidents in the future.
