ECHUCA, Australia, Jan. 17 (UPI) -- About 3,000 people have fled their properties and about 13,000 homes have been flooded in the Australian state of Victoria, officials said Sunday.
Floodwaters from the Campaspe River were pushing into the northern Victorian town of Echuca, inundating homes and cutting off roads, the Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported.
"It's the southern and southwestern portion of the town that is being most severely impacted," said Campaspe Shire Mayor Neil Pankhurst, adding the river was expected to rise to a record 32 feet.
Sandbags were being distributed to people in Horsham in western Victoria to deal with the worst flood in more than 100 years. Evacuation alerts were issued for Kerang in the north and Panmure in the southwest.
Officials said they were doing all they could to assist citizens.
"I suspect that there are tens and tens of millions of dollars of damage that has been done," Premier Ted Baillieu said. "I can't put a total on it now but I think it's fair to say this flood is one of the worst in Victoria's history and we need to be aware of that and respond to it. And we will."
Brisbane residents were relaxing a bit because the Somerset Dam had emptied about 90 percent of its flood storage, increasing its storage capacity in the event of more rain, the Brisbane Courier-Mail reported.
NASA climatologist Bill Patzert said the rain-bearing La Nina weather event is affecting weather around the globe.
"This La Nina has strengthened for the past seven months and is one of the most intense events of the past half century,'' Patzert said.
