A man has been found dead at a home in Rochester in Victoria’s north after floodwaters swept through the area.
The 71-year-old was found in the backyard of his High St home about 9.30am on Saturday morning.
Victoria Police and SES crews are near the scene but unable to reach the property as it is cut off by floodwater.
Thousands of residents in central Victoria have been told to evacuate or prepare to leave their homes with no idea when they will be able to return.
Emergency evacuation orders were in force on Saturday morning for Charlton Township at the foothills of the Great Dividing Range, Orrvale near Shepparton and the northeastern town of Wangaratta for properties within the Parfitt Road Levee System.
By 11am on Saturday more than 460 homes had been damaged by floodwater rising above floor level and around 500 properties remain isolated.
The SES had performed about 350 rescues over the flood emergency.
Of those rescues, 160 happened at properties in Rochester when residents who chose to remain in their homes had to be saved, while 150 involved people being rescued from stranded vehicles.
Shepparton in central Victoria is expected to experience its worst flooding in almost three decades from Sunday and residents have been told to prepare to evacuate.
It is now too late to leave the towns of Murchison and Murchison East, which are downstream of Shepparton along the Goulburn River.
As of 10am on Saturday there were major flood warnings for parts of the Avoca River, Goulburn River, King River, Mt Emu Creek, Loddon Weir, Ovens River, Broken River and Seven Creeks.
Fourteen relief centres and 55 sandbag collection sites have been established across the state.
The extent of the damage to hundreds of homes in the inner Melbourne suburb of Maribyrnong is just starting to become clear after the Maribyrnong River breached its banks on Friday.
Member for Maribyrnong Bill Shorten said many houses and a lot of community infrastructure had been damaged.
“I think that people here knew the theory of flood damage, but because it hasn’t happened in a couple of generations of this significance I think it’s a shock,” Mr Shorten told ABC News.
People displaced by the floods are eligible for one-off payments of $560 per adult and $280 per child.
Some 3000 Victorians had applied for the payments by 11am on Saturday.
The federal and state governments have agreed to use the recently retired $580 million Mickleham quarantine facility as emergency accommodation.
The facility will reopen early next week for 250 people with crisis accommodation available for six to eight weeks, but its actual use will depend on demand.
Premier Daniel Andrews said local defence personnel were assisting with the emergency across regional Victoria and up to 60 additional ADF experts will help with the clean-up in coming days.
Mostly dry conditions were forecast for Monday and Tuesday across Victoria, but flooding is expected to return late in the week.
© AAP 2022
