Flash flooding emergency hits Australia's Victoria

Xinhua
15 Jan 2026, 14:15 GMT+10

MELBOURNE, Jan. 15 (Xinhua) -- An emergency flash flooding warning was issued on Thursday for coastal towns in the Australian state of Victoria.

Residents and visitors in towns along the iconic Great Ocean Road, about 120 km southwest of Melbourne, were on Thursday afternoon told to take shelter immediately after the region was hit by a storm cell that brought intense rainfall.

Thousands of homes in the region have been left without power, and video footage posted on social media showed vehicles being washed out to sea by floodwaters.

Erin Mason from the State Emergency Service told Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) radio that there had been no reports of injuries, but that authorities were working to evacuate people who had become stranded in flooded holiday parks.

"We've got crews on scene now attempting to assist those people to higher ground and safer locations," she said.

The ABC reported that a rain gauge near the town of Lorne, a popular tourism destination, recorded 170 millimeters (mm) of rainfall in the seven hours since 9 a.m. local time on Thursday, surpassing the previous daily record of 123 mm set in December 2021.

Earlier on Thursday, Victoria's Emergency Management Commissioner Tim Wiebusch said that the number of properties confirmed to have been destroyed by the state's ongoing bushfire crisis has risen to 900, including around 260 homes.

Wiebusch said that 11 fires were continuing to burn as of Thursday and that around 410,000 hectares of land had been burnt across the state.

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