By REBECCA BILLS
THE Hills were thrashed with wild winds over the week, leaving many residents without power for days.
Emergency service crews were out in force for most of the week clearing fallen power lines and trees, with SES and CFA crews called to a number of incidents on Tuesday 24 June – the day hardest hit.
Lilydale SES spokesperson Louise Andrews said over the duration of the stormy weather, SES crews were called to over 50 jobs in the Hills area alone.
SP AusNet spokesperson Jonathon Geddes said there was 24,000 customers statewide that were without power.
“That was at the highest point on Tuesday 24 June with most of these properties located in the north east corridors of Melbourne,” he said.
Two days after the strongest of the winds had come through, 110 homes were still without power.
“The largest pockets of residents without power are located around Monbulk, Kallista, Kinglake and Castella but had all power restored by 5pm Thursday afternoon,” Mr Geddes said.
“We have had hundreds of our workers out each day repairing powerlines that have been ripped to the ground by falling trees and strong gale force winds.”
Two trees fell across the Mount Dandenong Tourist Road near Toorak Road in Mount Dandenong at around 2pm on 24 June, knocking down powerlines and hitting a car, with around six others falling that day alone.
Mount Dandenong Tourist Road was consequently closed until those trees were removed on Wednesday 25 June afternoon with residents asked to use Ridge Road in Mount Dandenong to get on and off the mountain. Olinda CFA’s first lieutenant Steve Walker said newlyweds on their honeymoon from Queensland were travelling along the road at around 2pm when they stopped to assess a tree that had fallen across the road.
“They were just about to get back in their car to back up when the second tree fell,” he said.
As crews began to close the Tourist Road to attend to those fallen trees, just metere from the site, a tree measuring around 80 metres fell across three properties in Dickens Road, Olinda, damaging two houses.
“At that point in time winds were upwards of 80 kilometres an hour winds,” Mr Walker said.
CFA crews were on the scene of the latter incident, and secured the damaged properties with no one injured in both incidents and the tree cleared the following day.
Mr Walker said on Wednesday 25 June crews were still working on clearing all the trees that fell and said historically it’s likely there will be more damage because there are still a lot of trees that fall once the wind stops.
“Residents need to stay very alert, don’t get under any trees and if you are unsure of any tree on your property please get it assessed,” he said.
“Now that the weather has slowed down, this is the perfect time to assess all your trees and even get contractors in to remove the hazardous ones.”
Mr Geddes warned customers if similar weather reoccurs, to not approach any fallen powerlines and if they do come across a tree that has fallen onto powerlines to call 13 17 99 immediately.
