By Callum Ludwig
Lilydale and the surrounding area were absolutely smashed by torrential rain and flash flooding on Tuesday 26 October.
Overall, close to 75mm of rain fell in around an hour and a half, with a five-minute window of rain falling at an astonishing 120mm per hour.
Lilydale SES Unit Controller Shaun Caulfield said the unseasonal rain was one of the heaviest and most intense downpours the region has seen in some time.
“I was in the car at the time and it was pretty hectic, to say the least. A lot of people have called us because they were concerned about rising water and they’ll be okay, but it’s certainly impacted quite a number of properties,” he said.
“About 40-50 properties have had significant water go through them and are going to have damage to carpets and flooring. We’re lucky at the moment we haven’t had anybody that’s needed to relocate from their residence but it’s going to be a significant repair bill for a lot of those homeowners.”
Lilydale SES responded to 210 jobs including 24 floodwater rescues as a result of the storm cell event.
Mr Caulfield said sadly they did see a lot of people that were still driving on flooded roads.
“While it’s easy to say it was flash flooding, it certainly didn’t come down that suddenly that people were stuck on a road as it suddenly flooded,” he said.
“The roads were already inundated with water and people were still making choices to drive into deep water, we had one instance of three cars that all driving to the same flooded road and all somehow got stranded.”
Homeowners have responded well, with quick efforts to begin temporary trenching and the use of sandbags. Lilydale SES’s headquarters on Nelson Road are supplying sandbags in reasonable quantities on Wednesday 26 October for homeowners affected by floodwaters.
Mr Caulfield said residents can prepare for potential future flood events by making sure their gutters and drains are cleared properly.
“One of the main sources of requests for assistance for us is people with blocked gutters and blocked drains. We are in a declared La Nina, so we are going to continue to see heavier rainfalls and lots of it,” he said.
“Just stay aware of the situation with either the Vic Emergency app or the Bureau of Meteorology app which have push alert warnings out when severe weather is imminent. SES has a number of social media channels that they can look at when we try and get warnings out that are more localised to our area but we can’t cover everything. And we only had about 15 minutes warning for this incident.”
Beresford Road and Cave Hill Road, Maroondah Highway outside Yarra Vally Toyota and Swansea Road near Lilydale Lake were the hardest hit spots in Lilydale, with Beenak Road in Wandin North, Warburton Highway through Seville, Ingram Road and Killara Road in Coldstream and Hull Road and Manchester Road in Mooroolbark among the other flooded areas.
The Bureau of Meteorology’s 24-hour rainfall map has the Olinda Creek at Lilydale Lake marker as the only area in all of Melbourne that recorded 50mm of rain, 26mm greater than the next highest recording.
