Be prepared and watch out for snakes, Murray Bridge flood meeting hears
About 60 people have attended a community meeting at Murray Bridge Town Hall. Here's what was said.
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Prepare your property, if you haven’t already, and watch out for snakes.
Those were two of the top tips given out at a community flood meeting in Murray Bridge on Wednesday night.
The meeting was much more sparsely attended than last month’s – only about 60 people showed up.
Not much new information was presented, either, especially with no-one from the Department of Environment and Water present after a late withdrawal.
But all speakers repeated previous messages about preparing riverfront properties for flooding, getting ready to evacuate in the coming days, and staying at least 50 metres away from power lines.
PIRSA’s Barb Cowey warned everyone to save a snake catcher’s number in their phones, too.
“As we see the river encroaching, we’re starting to see a lot more snake movement,” she said.
“They need to go somewhere.”
State Emergency Service incident controller Leanne Schmidt said more than 20 staff were now leading the local flood response from the Country Fire Service’s regional headquarters on the east side of Murray Bridge.
Some other updates from the meeting:
- The swamps at Toora are on the verge of flooding
- There’s a slim chance floodwaters may cut Mannum Road near the Rocky Gully Wetland in the coming weeks; however, the Department for Infrastructure and Transport will look at sandbagging an inlet in the meantime to keep water from getting too close to homes on Rocky Gully Road
- SA Water has been working hard to protect its pumping station at Mobilong, which supplies drinking water to Murray Bridge and Adelaide; it has installed extra pipelines and strengthened levee banks
- Housing SA will have “serious discussions” during the next week about whether to open a relief centre in Murray Bridge
Housing SA’s Tony Davis advised anyone who was having trouble processing the flood event – whether their property was impacted or not – to seek psycho-social support at the Mannum relief centre.
- More information: Visit www.sa.gov.au or call 1800 362 361.
- Current SES warnings: www.ses.sa.gov.au.
- Get help: Call the SES on 132 500 or, in a life-threatening emergency, call 000.
- Read more: Murray Bridge flood watch
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