A man has risked his own life to help rescue a 74-year-old woman from floodwaters in central Victoria and been praised by police as a good Samaritan.
It was one of more than two dozen rescues in a 24-hour period as the state’s flood emergency intensified, with thousands of people currently under evacuation orders.
Mitch Smith spotted the woman in Bendigo Creek at Elmore and swam out to help after her car was swept off a road and washed about 100 metres downsteam in raging waters on Monday night.
He used a ratchet strap to secure her to a tree and the pair waited for about an hour before emergency crews arrived and deployed a boat to rescue them. Neither was injured.
“The water was probably nine foot, 10 foot deep,” Mr. Smith told ABC TV.
“She was pretty exhausted, she said her arms were getting super tired and they wouldn’t be able to hang on for much longer.”
Despite his efforts and praise from police that he was a good Samaritan who risked his life, Mr. Smith insists he’s not a hero.
“If it was my grandmother in the water I hope someone else would have done the same thing, yeah it was a very lucky situation,” he said.
Major flood warnings are current for the Campaspe and Goulburn rivers, with any residents left in Seymour, Yea and Rochester told it’s now too late to leave following evacuation warnings.
The flood at Seymour peaked late on Jan. 8 with early estimates suggesting about ten homes were flooded, with up to 35 expected to be impacted at Rochester on Jan. 9.
More than a dozen flood warnings have been issued across the state and the wild weather has also impacted Melbourne’s east, with Mount Dandenong Tourist Road at Ferny Creek closed after a landslide about 40 metres wide and 70 metres long.
Victoria Police are warning motorists to avoid travelling on flood-affected roads and never attempt to drive through flood waters.
“All emergency services are working hard to respond to this latest weather event, but we don’t want to be diverting resources to rescue people that have ignored the warnings,” road policing assistant commissioner Glenn Weir said.
