Some Victorians could be without power for days after powerful winds battered the state overnight, bringing trees down and damaging power lines.
Destructive winds wreaked havoc across the state last night, causing widespread power outages, road closures and dramatic rescues.
And an entire Victorian town has been blocked off by fallen trees where emergency crews are scrambling to reach a woman in labour as severe wind gusts and heavy rain thrashed the state overnight.
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All roads leading into the small western Victorian town of Trentham, 22km east of Dayleford, were blocked by fallen trees where it’s understood State Emergency Service crews were trying to make way for a woman who was in labour about 6.30am.
Ambulances were understood to be waiting nearby to assist the woman.
The incident is one of hundreds to occur overnight after wind gusts as high as 115km/h smashed the state.
Winds brought down power lines and plunged thousands of homes across Victoria into darkness.
In Olinda, an injured mother and son were rescued by Belgrave police after a falling tree trapped them inside their double-storey home.
The woman called triple-0 just after 11pm after the tree crashed through their home, extensively damaging the roof, with debris separating the trapped pair from each other.
The Belgrave officers were also isolated due to falling trees in the area and walked 1.5km to the home to rescue the duo.
Nearby SES volunteers cleared a nearby road, and police from Olinda were then able to transport the mother and son to ambulance paramedics waiting at Ferny Creek.
In Sassafras, a fallen tree has caused a gas leak on Colehurst Crescent with emergency services urging people to avoid the area.
POWER COULD BE OUT FOR DAYS
By 9.30am, Ausnet said 159,233 homes were still without power. United Energy said 11,473 services were cut off, 35,648 with Powercor, 2529 with CitiPower and Jemena 400
An Ausnet spokesman said some households could be without power for days in the east of the state.
Continuing strong winds and dangerous conditions during Thursday would hamper crews’ ability to restore power to many homes, he said.
“Severe weather has caused power outages across the state. A large number of our customers are without power and are unlikely to have power restored until late tomorrow,” he said.
Fire Rescue Victoria told the Herald Sun on Wednesday night there were downed power lines throughout the city and they were isolating any dangerous sites until power crews were able to arrive.
SES INUNDATED WITH CALLS FOR HELP
SES state duty officer Laura Dewildt said they had been inundated with 3900 calls for help with the worst hit areas around Lilydale and Emerald.
From about 7pm to 7am, they responded to 2595 call outs compared to less than 60 the previous night.
More than 2400 were for fallen trees, with 393 reports of building damage.
“Our volunteers have had a busy night and they are going to have a busy day,” she said.
Ms Dewildt said calls began around 11pm and peaked again at 1am as the highest winds buffeted the state.
She said as residents woke on Thursday there had been more calls and asked people to be patient trying to get through on the phone line.
She said the Lilydale SES unit was the busiest in the state with 463 jobs while Mt Evelyn was the most impacted suburb with 113 incidents.
This was followed by Croydon, where there were 93 jobs.
Maroondah’s SES unit received 257 calls for help overnight, with requests still coming in thick on Thursday morning.
Three rescues were carried out after flooding on Paynes Rd in Wonga Park at 6.30pm Wednesday, and on Healesville-Kinglake Rd in Healesville at 8am.
The unit also responded to a structure collapse at a home in Croydon at 2.40am.
Spokeswoman Nadine Farrell said it was the unit’s busiest night in two years, and warned locals not to drive through flood waters.
TRANSPORT CHAOS ON ROADS, RAILS
A Victoria police spokeswoman this morning urged motorists to keep off the road if possible and said roads in the Hepburn, Moorabool and Ballarat areas and the Dandenong and Yarra Ranges were among the worst affected.
The Lilydale line is closed between Lilydale and Ringwood station due to a fallen tree near Mooroolbark, with metro trains advising commuters to add an extra 20 minutes of travel time to their trip.
There were also delays on the Cranbourne and Pakenham lines at 6.30am on Thursday morning after tree branch was removed, but the congestion is starting to clear.
Travellers were advised to check updates regularly as the two lines’ service could change shortly without notice.
And the wild weather is not over yet, with the Bureau of Meteorology continuing to issue alerts damaging winds — which will hit much of Southern Victoria including Melbourne — and a number of flood warnings are in place.
Meanwhile in Gippsland, thousands of homes from Inverloch to Grantville are without power.
Bass Coast Health said the main Covid vaccination clinic would be closed because of the outages in Wonthaggi and hundreds of appointments booked for Thursday would have to be rescheduled.
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2021-06-09 23:40:08Z
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