January 10th, 2024Brave act as flooding swamps Vic towns

A man has risked his own life to rescue a 74-year-old woman from floodwaters in central Victoria as the state’s flood emergency intensified earlier this week.

More than two dozen rescues have been carried out in a 24-hour period alone, with thousands of people under evacuation orders and two major flood warnings issued.

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 downstream in raging waters on Monday night.

He secured her to a tree with a strap and the pair waited for about an hour before emergency crews in a boat came to rescue them. Neither was injured.

“The water was probably nine foot, 10 foot deep,” Mr Smith has told media.