Victoria's Barmah braces for floods

Residents in the border town of Barmah are on high alert as floodwaters that have wreaked havoc in northern Victoria surge towards them.

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Residents in the border town of Barmah are on high alert as floodwaters that have wreaked havoc in northern Victoria surge towards them.

Several homes in Barmah and about 60 low-lying properties between the town and nearby Picola are at risk of inundation.

More than 100 pallets of sandbags have been sent to the communities as they prepare for the floodwaters to hit.

SES deputy incident controller Michael Morley said the creek level upstream of Barmah was higher than predicted and several homes in town were at risk of flooding.

"We've allocated more resources immediately to sandbagging at Barmah and we have also beefed up the resources available overnight to assist the locals," he told AAP.

The water was expected to peak in the next two days at Barmah.

"We have a genuine concern that some properties that we originally thought to be safe may in fact have the potential to get wet," Mr Morley said.

"The Broken Creek immediately north of Barmah is silting ... That may be causing water to back up."

Bureau of Meteorology duty forecaster Jacqui Wescombe said a rain band was expected to move across the state from Thursday into Friday this week.

Falls were expected to be between 20 and 30 millimetres, with isolated patches of 50mm to 100mm and possible thunderstorms.


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Source: AAP

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