5 Feb 2011

More wild weather in Victoria

9:03 pm on 5 February 2011

Wild weather continues across large parts of Victoria.

The State Emergency Service had rescued at least 90 people and received almost 5000 calls for help by Saturday evening after dozens of homes and businesses were flooded.

Melbourne was one of the worst-affected areas reports the ABC, with Lyndhurst in city's south-east recording the highest rainfall of 174mm.

The weather bureau is expecting another 30 to 50mm of rainfall around the Melbourne area and in northern and eastern suburbs on Saturday.

The rain is expected to ease by Sunday morning but attention will then be focused on the flood threat.

Rescues

Rescue crews found three teenage boys clinging to a tree and a pole at Pakenham in Melbourne's south-east on Saturday afternoon, after they struck trouble while swimming in a swollen creek.

An English tourist suffered critical injuries when a large tree fell on her tent in Doncaster, in Melbourne's east.

SES crews helped a woman and her two young children escape from a car trapped in a flash flood at Mildura, in the north-west of the state.

Firefighters also rescued a girl who was clinging to a tree branch after being swept away at Ashwood, in east Melbourne.

More than 40 people were rescued from their cars in rising floodwaters in the Melbourne area overnight on Friday.