Storm not the norm

By Casey Neill
STATE Emergency Service crews from across Victoria have flocked to help the hills following one of Melbourne’s worst storms on record.
Emerald SES received almost 270 callouts over the weekend, the sixth highest number in the state.
Media liaison officer John Reed said hailstones larger than golf balls pelted the hills about 3pm on Saturday (6 March).
Mr Reed said the unit was on the ground 10 minutes after the storm hit and responded to roof and skylight damage, broken windows and fallen trees.
“It hit the roof and the whole house would shake,” he said.
He said Upwey, Belgrave and Belgrave South were the hardest hit towns in the Dandenongs.
The worst incident the team attended saw a tree demolish one hills home’s back wall.
“All the others are just time-consuming,” Mr Reed said.
Warrnambool and Ballarat SES and 13 local CFA crews helped the Emerald team respond to call-outs.
Neighbouring Knox took the brunt of the state’s damage. Knox SES received more than 2200 call-outs.
Sherbrooke Art Society’s Wendy Havard said members had just finished receiving paintings for the Belgrave gallery’s new exhibition when “giant hailstones erupted from the sky”.
“The gallery car park soon became the refuge of many motorists pulling off the roads to wait out the storm,” she said.
“Other Sherbrooke members stood watching in shocked fascination as a torrent of rain, hail, and leaves flew through the air.”
Wind gusts of up to 80km/h hit the hills about 2.30pm but Mt Dandenong recorded just 1.8 millimetres of rain across the weekend.
The Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) declared a catastrophe two hours after the event and established an insurance taskforce to assist in the recovery process.
The ICA urged policyholders to immediately lodge a claim for any damage to insured property and to take photos and record details of damaged items.