By Parker McKenzie
Local SES units have seen little respite from weeks of weather events, after strong winds bought down trees on major roads throughout the Dandenong Ranges on Sunday 20 November.
Emerald SES controller Ben Owen said weeks of weather causing callouts for the unit of “compounding day in and day out.”
“We had three incidents involving large trees or a large number of trees in or around the main arterial roads in Gembrook,” he said.
“There was Gembrook-Launching Place Road which was closed because a huge tree fell near the scout park, Beenak E Road which was closed for a few hours because four trees had fallen over there and knocked each other over.”
On Monday 21 November, a severe weather warning for damaging winds remained in place for much of Victoria, with potential gusts of up to 110 kilometres an hour.
Mr Owen said fortunately he hadn’t yet seen or heard of anyone having housing damaged because of fallen trees.
“There might have been one on a shed but nothing going that way, fortunately,” he said.
“It would have been well over 100 hours of volunteer hours responding to the call we got throughout the day.”
Statewide, VICSES received 491 requests for assistance, which included 313 downed trees, 40 calls relating to building damage and 17 incidents relating to flood.
Mr Owen said his unit had already had a busy week before the weekend weather.
“We had a carry-out at the 1000 steps on Thursday night, where a lady rolled her ankle and was quite unwell. We helped the ambulance with our carry equipment,” he said.
“This is all on top of a busy six to seven-week period.”
VICSES asked the community to:
Check loose items such as outdoor settings, trampolines and umbrellas are secured.
Stay indoors and away from windows.
Do not park under trees. With the majority of calls in the last 24 hours being downed trees, and gusty conditions set to continue over saturated ground, so expecta continuing hazard from falling trees.
Drive to the conditions. There may be debris across the road such as fallen powerlines, trees, and tree branches.
