Melbourne, Australia hit by month’s worth of rain

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Melbourne has woken up to a month’s worth of rain that has caused flash flooding, downed trees and prompted more than 300 calls to emergency services across the state.

Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) meteorologist Peter Otto said 55 millimetres of rain hit Melbourne overnight — the highest rainfall for March since 1929.

The average rainfall for Victoria in March is 50.1 mm.

Mr Otto said the wet weather was the result of remnants of ex-tropical cyclone Esther moving south from Queensland and the Northern Territory.

Heavy rainfall was expected to hit north-eastern Victoria today with possible totals of up to 100 mm.

“Melbourne showers will ease throughout the day and north-east storms will clear overnight,” Mr Otto said.

A spokesman for the State Emergency Service (SES) said crews began responding to calls for help in the early hours of this morning as people woke up to the damage.

The SES received 323 calls for assistance between 3:00am and 3:00pm, mostly related to building damage and flooding.

Delays on trams and train lines around Melbourne are clearing after flash flooding led to signal faults and flooded tracks.

Alister Drayton from the SES said he was disappointed that volunteers were called out to rescue 17 people from vehicles stuck in flood waters.

“That’s some poor decision making from people,” he said.

Power at Richmond Station has been restored after a local power outage affected Richmond and Cremorne.

Earlier delays on the Belgrave, Lilydale and Glen Waverley lines have been cleared.

There are delays and cancellations on the Ballarat line due to a signal fault at Rockbank. No trains are running on the Seymour/Shepparton/Albury line between Seymour and Albury.

Severe weather warnings for the Central, East Gippsland, Northern Country and North East forecast districts have been cancelled.