Wednesday,
25 December 2024
Power lost, trees felled and buildings damaged as storms strike again

HUNDREDS of residents and businesses in Myrtleford to Mt Beauty were left without power on Sunday evening into Monday as strong winds and storms lashed the region.

The storms, with winds of more than 70kmh, caused trees to fall and some buildings sustain damage, with some premises experience blackouts from 7pm on Sunday night to 11am Monday morning.

While the effects of the onslaught were less pronounced than the damage recorded the previous week, SES services were called to 151 requests for assistance (RFAs) across the region.

Wangaratta recorded 11 RFAs and Bright called in nine.

Power shut off multiple times overnight in Myrtleford and again at approximately 8:40am on Monday morning, with residents calling in nine RFAs.

Myrtleford SES volunteers were called to several incidents across the area on Monday from 5am.

They spent the morning clearing trees that had blocked lanes on the Great Alpine Road and the Myrtleford-Yackandandah Road.

The SES crew of five, including David Coates, had their hands full, chain-sawing branches and directing local traffic until the roads were clear.

"We thought we were all clear later that morning, then we got a page about a tree that had fallen on a property in Williams Street," Mr Coates said.

"A tree had become loose from where it was located next to the creek beside the property.

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"We cut up the tree and removed it and fortunately the damage wasn't too severe.

"We were able to temporarily repair the area of the roof were there was a broken skylight to make it safe and waterproof for the next few days.

"The resident was fine and we were able to help him on the phone to his insurance company."

Bright SES controller, Graham Gales, said his members had attended 10 jobs since 2am Monday morning.

"Fallen tree branches and boughs were blocking a number of roads overnight," he said.

"The trees were down across either one or two lanes on a number of roads, including the Great Alpine Road, Kiewa Valley Highway and Morses Creek Road.

"Fortunately, there were no car crashes or injuries in these instances."

In the Hume region, there were 130 fallen trees listed, with 17 reports of building damage.

The persistent weather caused a number of blackouts between Myrtleford, Yackandandah and Mount Beauty, affecting hundreds of households and businesses.

AusNet released a statement at 4pm on Monday afternoon to address the emergency.

"Since the weather front passed through our network, we have restored power for over 95,000 customers, with approximately 83,000 still remaining," the media release reads.

"Significant damage has hit our network, with towns without power including Moe, Warragul, Hampton Park, Lilydale, Drouin, Traralgon, Mt Evelyn, Narre Warren, and Wangaratta.

"Crews continue to assess damage to our network infrastructure, which includes downed powerlines, damage to switches and poles as a result of fallen trees and branches.

"Two helicopters are assisting ground crews with inspections in Gippsland.

"We anticipate that some customers will remain without power into Monday night, and potentially for a number of days.

"We apologise for the inconvenience and assure the community we are doing everything we can to restore power as quickly and safely as possible.

"We will update estimated restoration times on our Outage Tracker once damage assessments have been completed.

"To check on current outages, please visit https://www.outagetracker.com.au.

"We urge people to keep away from any fallen or damaged powerlines and assume any wires are live.

"Report new faults and emergencies online www.ausnetservices.com.au/outages/report-a-fault or on 13 17 99."

While 300 AusNet crews were sent to assess and repair the cause of the blackouts as quickly as possible, some outages were not resolved until late Monday evening.