Fourth storm batters Australia, major flooding

SYDNEY, Jun 28 (Reuters) The fourth major storm to batter Australia's east coast this month is causing major flooding in the southern state of Victoria and whipping up mountainous seas along the eastern seaboard.

One man was killed by a falling tree and hundreds of residents were fleeing the rising flood waters, officials said.

The floods in Victoria's southeast are the worst in 17 years with warnings issued for 10 rivers and creeks, officials said.

''It's certainly a bad set of floods,'' State Emergency Services Commissioner (SES) Bruce Esplin told reporters.

''Some of the forecasts ... are that the flood heights could reach the levels of 1998 and 1990, which people would remember were pretty extreme flood events,'' Esplin said.

He said that with more heavy rain and high tides on Thursday night, flooding would worsen.

''There's more danger times to come,'' he said.

The four East Coast lows off the southeast coast in June have generated cyclone-strength winds, torrential rain and huge seas.

The first major storm forced evacuation of 5,000 people from the wine-growing Hunter Valley region of New South Wales (NSW), which suffered the worst floods in 30 years.

The storm beached a coal ship and left nine people dead in NSW.

Wild seas halted multi-million-dollar coal exports from the port of Newcastle and caused major erosion of Sydney's beaches.

The latest storm hit Victoria yesterday, flooding some towns overnight, cutting major highways and leaving almost 10,000 people without power today.

Bushfires that ravaged Victoria in late 2006 had exacerbated the flooding, said emergency officials. More than 1,000 bushfires burnt almost 1.2 million hectares of the state.

''What has changed is that instead of ... a gentler release of water from the forest areas or the catchment areas, it runs immediately to creeks and then runs immediately down the systems and it hasn't been retained in the vegetation,'' said SES spokesman John O'Brien.

''It's a drought-breaker, but it will bring a lot of problems to us in the next few days,'' O'Brien said.

Firemen pumped water out of some overflowing dams in Victoria, fearing dams would break under the pressure. One river had risen 8 metres in 24 hours, local media said.

Heavy rains in NSW and Victoria have eased drought conditions in many areas, with dry dams now overflowing, but broad swathes of Australia remain gripped by the worst drought in 100 years.

''We must recognise that there are still many parts of the country that are still suffering from drought that haven't received enough rain yet,'' Deputy Prime Minister Mark Vaile told reporters.

But recent heavy rains have topped up dwindling water supplies for several cities. Sydney's main reservoir, Warragamba Dam, is more than 50 percent full, and the nearby city of Goulburn can stop trucking in water with its dam now full.

The severe storms have also sent temperatures plummeting across the southeast after the warmest May on record.

Heavy snow is falling not only on the Snowy Mountains ski resorts but also on farms southwest of Sydney.

Weather officials said East Coast lows developed between winter and spring off the southeast coast when cold water from the Southern Ocean met warm currents from the tropical Coral Sea.

But the absence of an El Nino weather pattern which produces warmer sea temperatures, and the possible development of a La Nina with cooler temperatures, meant the current storms were more intense than previous years.

The Bureau of Meteorology said the frequency of this month's storms was a result of a series of intense low-pressure systems in the Indian Ocean which in turn caused intense high pressure systems south of Australia.

These highs generate a frontal mass of cold air which, when it meets the warmer sea temperatures, creates intense storms.

REUTERS SLD SSC1358