text: Greater Bendigo Council staff and contractors are working their way through more than 1,050 customer requests for help following flooding across the region.
  Road and drainage works will be taking place across the region, and more damage is expected to be identified and programmed for repair in the coming months.
  Council says a key challenge with being a city surrounded by forest, like Bendigo, is that with every bit of rain event, leaf litter, and debris gets caught in water runoff and block drains.
  There are approximately 40 city staff and 25 contracting staff focused on unblocking drains and fixing damaged sealed and unsealed roads, who have already completed 200 requests.
  Two full-time crews are working in the Huntly area, and have been working across this suburb since the first rain event on Christmas Day.
  At this stage, Council predicts it will take three months to complete the remaining 850 jobs, but expects more jobs will be added after inspections of local infrastructures.
  The flood events have caused approximately $5M in damage, and Council plans to use the upcoming 2024/2025 Budget to focus on flood relief.