With the Bureau of Meteorology predicting the height of the Goulburn River at Shepparton to exceed 10.36 metres on Saturday, Goulburn-Murray Water (G-MW) will issue an SMS alert today to advise customers in the Loch Garry Flood Protection District to begin taking flood precautionary measures.
G-MW Acting Managing Director, Shane McGrath said that a critical part of the flood protection operations is to notify customers via a SMS alert today of the anticipated operation of the structure.
"This alert will advise 140 customers in the Loch Garry Flood Protection District that in accordance with agreed operating rules, G-MW expects to remove drop bars from the Loch Garry flood protection regulator, some time on Sunday, 24 hours after the river's height officially exceeds 10.36 metres," said Mr McGrath.
"The regulator at Loch Garry is a 48-bay structure that forms part of the nine kilometres of levee banks under G-MW's management. The flood protection scheme is designed to provide low to medium flood level protection," Mr McGrath said.
"The regulator's drop bars are removed during significant flood events to allow the flood waters to flow across the floodplain," Mr McGrath said.
G-MW begins removing the bars 24 hours after the river height at the Shepparton gauge exceeds 10.36 metres, with 25 bars removed for every 31 millimetres of rise above 10.36 metres.
"Bars are progressively removed until 24 hours after the river reaches 10.96 metres at which point all the bars will have been removed. When the river recedes below 10.96 metres, bars are progressively replaced based on the same criteria as they were removed," Mr McGrath said.
"We encourage all customers to follow the flood precautions advised by the SES to protect their stock and equipment and particularly customers in the flood protection district," said Mr McGrath.
For information about floods, river levels and weather warnings visit www.bom.gov.au and for emergency updates visit www.ses.vic.gov.au
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