‘We’ve lost everything, you can see caravans floating away’: flash flooding hits Victoria’s Great Ocean Road

Woman camping at flooded Wye River with her daughters says ‘it’s just heartbreaking, strangers are hugging strangers’

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Hundreds of people have evacuated a major camping ground after a severe thunderstorm caused flash flooding at Wye River, closed a major scenic tourism road and washed cars out to sea.

An emergency warning was in place for the Wye, Kennett and Cumberland rivers in the Lorne area in Victoria’s south-west coast after thunderstorms dumped more than 170mm of rain on the area on Thursday afternoon.