Victoria flood: Emergency warning for Great Ocean Road as record-breaking downpour sweeps cars to sea

An emergency warning has been issued for towns along Victoria's Great Ocean Road after thunderstorms and torrential rain battered communities and swept vehicles into the sea.

Residents living in Wye River, Kennett River, Cumberland River, Lorne and surrounds were issued with the warning, urging them to take shelter away from floodwater, at about 2.30pm (local time).

The State Emergency Service (SES) said a storm cell with intense rain swept through the area just before 1pm.

Footage posted to social media shows up to three cars being swept to sea by floodwaters in Wye River, and one resident said weather-related damage had isolated them on their property.

Separate social media clips show caravans being inundated by the Erskine River in Lorne, where the only supermarket was forced to close until further notice. SES crews are assessing the extent of flooding there.

Emergency Warning - Flash Flood - Take Shelter Now - Wye River, Kennett River, Cumberland River, Lorne and surrounds - you should immediately move indoors and shelter, away from floodwater. Do not enter floodwater.

More info: https://t.co/D5YHZFA3a8 pic.twitter.com/JAqZejpEUu

— VICSES News (@vicsesnews) January 15, 2026

The SES said it had received no reports of injured people, but that it was responding to reports of people stuck in their caravans as floodwater inundated caravan parks.

"We've got crews on scene now attempting to assist those people to higher ground and safer locations," Erin Mason from the SES told ABC Radio Melbourne.

Mason said the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) had advised the worst of the storms were over.

"Rain is going to continue in the area, so people should still just remain vigilant. But for now those storms seem to have eased," she said.

'A tsunami of water'

A rain gauge in the Mt Cowley area, west of Lorne, had recorded more than 170mm of rain in seven hours since 9am, setting a 24-hour record for the site since records began in 2000.

Daniel Sherwin from the BOM said the amount of rain dumped on the region in such a short period had "blown everything out of proportion".

"It's very, very rare, this event, the amount of rainfall we're seeing over there," he said.

"I cannot stress enough just how much rain there is."

Local residents Peter and Bronywn Jacobs, who live on a property at Separation Creek, described the flooding as the worst they had seen in more than 70 years of living in the area.

"We actually have the creek flowing through our property of five acres," Bronwyn Jacobs said.

"A great wall of water still filled with tree trunks, came down at us."

Peter Jacobs said the couple only narrowly missed being struck by the deluge.

"It was coming at 100 miles an hour, it was taller than I am," he said.

"We missed being killed probably by about ten seconds because all these logs just demolished our chook house, and we just ran for our lives basically."

Peter Jacobs said two concrete bridges had been destroyed on his property, leaving them isolated, and a chook house had also been damaged beyond repair.

He said houses further down the hill appeared to have been flooded.

Cath, a caller in Wye River who spoke with ABC Radio Melbourne, said the storms started at about 8.30am before the flooding hit hours later.

"There was a bit of flooding and then all of a sudden, about 1:40pm, it really was like a tsunami of water going out from the river, and with it three cars were taken," she said.

"It was pretty distressing seeing them. Hopefully there was no-one in those cars," she said.

She said people were not able to get onto the Great Ocean Road because of flooding at the caravan park.

"So they've had to walk up the back and come up the back roads," she said.

"They've asked anyone with a car to help ferry them down, around, so that they can walk to the pub to be accounted for."

Roads closed, treacherous swells

The Great Ocean Road is closed in both directions between Skenes Creek and Cumberland River due to the extreme weather. Local police are also turning traffic around at Fairhaven.

The coastal towns of Wye River and Separation Creek sit at the foot of a more mountainous forest area. Flash flooding is likely to have been worsened as water coursed down from the hills.

As well as the deluge, a south-easterly wind is creating treacherous conditions and waves up to 3 metres high.

"The rainfall's going to hang around, but we are probably starting to see it tend back," Mr Sherwin from the BOM said.

"Although by the time we see things go down the river, those flooding conditions can linger for a bit."

The Otways region was not the only one to experience severe weather on Thursday, with thunderstorms developing over some sparsely populated areas in Gippsland in the state's east.

Wye River is about 60 kilometres east of the Carlisle River bushfire in the Otways, which has been burning out of control since Saturday.

- ABC