The first weekend of May saw towns in northeast Victoria experience their first rain for the season through the Goulbourn, King, and Kiewa river systems going into flood.
Our town of Rochester is also prone to flooding being on the Campaspe River.
While floods in Rochester can reach minor flood level with no impact on dwellings, and a moderate flood level begins to have some minimal impacts on dwellings, it is when the Campaspe reaches Major flood level that water from the river begin to affect the town.
When a Major level is predicted, the impacts to our dwellings, roads, and businesses all hinge on how high the water is predicted to reach on the Rochester Town Gauge.
A major flood event with a high gauge level prediction can have great impacts to the town, like the January 2011 event, while floods of this size are rare, they can still happen.
In the build up to a Major flood event there will be time for warnings to be issued but having a plan and knowing what you and your family would do if the water was coming, is a very smart thing to do.
Rochester does flood and there are no mitigation measures that can prevent the Campaspe from flooding the town as flood studies and investigations have shown us over the years.
Planning for floods, just like you would fire season, helps you be prepared, practical information to help you can be found on the SES website at ses.vic.gov.au/get-ready
