Storm leaves massive clean-up

SEVERE winds felled trees across South Gippsland last Wednesday, closing roads and forcing the cancellation of Stony Creek’s horse racing meet.
State Emergency Service (SES) volunteers were busy across the region, with 85 jobs responded to by 17 units within 24 hours.
A strong cold front crossed the region during the morning, bringing damaging winds averaging 50 to 60 km/h, with gusts of 90 to 100 km/h.
It was an eventful 24 hours for South Gippsland units, with 27 jobs:
•Leongatha Unit responding to five trees down over roads, and one damaged building;
•Foster Unit responding to nine fallen tree jobs, with many of these blocking roads and hindering traffic flow;
•Inverloch unit responding to three tree down jobs and one damaged building; and
•Wonthaggi unit responding to eight calls for assistance with four fallen trees and four damaged buildings.
Leongatha Unit controller Matt Saario said, “Our SES volunteers worked well under pressure to assist the community and other units across the shire under such difficult conditions.”
South Gippsland Shire Council crews attended to 70 requests for trees over roads, including roads managed by VicRoads. The first request was attended to at 5.45am and crews worked until 9pm.
Bass Coast Shire Council had 48 requests for trees or branches down. Eight of those blocked roads and driveways. The main areas were Grantville, The Gurdies and Inverloch-Outtrim Road.
At the Stony Creek Racing Club, racing was called off before racing started, for the safety of horses and riders.
All SES personnel who attended incidents as a result of the wind event are volunteers.
VICSES advises that recent events are a timely warning to be prepared for any future severe weather by ensuring loose items such as outdoor settings and trampolines are safely secured, and being aware of road hazards, such as debris from trees.
If you need assistance with trees blocking roads or causing building damage, call SES on 132 500. For all life threatening emergencies call Triple Zero (000).

On the job: State Emergency Service (SES) volunteers attended to fallen trees across South Gippsland last Wednesday.

Short URL: /?p=24109

Posted by Tayla Kershaw on Feb 20 2018. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry