Jan 17, 2011 2 min read

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) – Record floods were predicted in several rural Australian communities Monday as rivers swollen from upstream rain flowed heavily into southern states.

Officials expected floodwaters to drown out highways and isolate dozens of towns in northeastern Victoria state in some of the worst flooding in a century.

State Emergency Services spokeswoman Natasha Duckett warned that the town of Horsham could face a major flood during Monday’s expected peak of the Wimmera River, and electricity supplier Powercor was sandbagging its substation there to ensure it remained dry.

“The Wimmera River is higher than the levels seen in September 2010 and it’s still rising,” Duckett said. “The township could be bisected with a waterway right through the middle of town and the (Western) Highway cut.”

Up to 500 properties in the town of about 14,000 people could be affected.

More than 3,500 people have evacuated their homes in north-central Victoria state, with 43 towns and 1,500 properties already affected by rising waters.

People were watching warily after witnessing the devastation floods have wreaked in Queensland state.

Three weeks of flooding in the northeastern state left a vast territory underwater and caused 28 deaths, most of them from a flash flood that hit towns west of Brisbane on Jan. 10. Fourteen people are still missing.

Flooding has also spread from Queensland into New South Wales, where nearly 7,000 people are reliant on airdrops of food and other supplies after being isolated by floodwaters.