General News
12 September, 2023
Wild winds fell trees and powerlines
WILD weather lashed much of the state late last week, bringing with it widespread damage locally.
WILD weather lashed much of the state late last week, bringing with it widespread damage locally.
Wind gusts estimated at more than 100 kilometres an hour occurred Friday leaving a path of destruction.
Cobden SES unit controller Matt Robertson said volunteers were kept busy throughout the day.
“We had between 17 to 20 call outs on Friday,” he said.
“They were predominantly trees down; but there was a small amount of building damage.
“We were widely hit across our respective area from Cobden to Simpson and Port Campbell.”
Mr Robertson said Cobden SES had two crews responding to callouts on the day.
“I also called for support from CFA, Police and council,” he said.
“The callouts started early Friday morning and went to mid to late afternoon.
“Even now (Monday) the clean-up is still ongoing.”
Mr Robertson reminded people to drive to conditions in poor weather and also to be vigilant with trees still likely to continue falling in the coming days.
Widespread power outages were experienced across the region with a number of faults reported.
“Extreme weather brought on a number of outages in the southwest and west of Victoria on of September 8,” a Powercor spokesperson said.
“Power outages were recorded in Cobden, Timboon, Camperdown, Portland, Warrnambool, Terang and a number of south-western and western towns across Victoria were among the hardest hit areas.
“Some customers were without power into Saturday morning, with the majority of customers back on supply on Friday evening.
“We thank the Cobden, Timboon and surrounding communities for their patience as our crews worked to restore power safely.”
Despite the hefty winds and chilly temperatures on the day, rainfall was relatively low.
According to the official Bureau of Meterology data recorded at the Cobden Post Office, just 5.2mm of rain fell on Friday and 16.2mm on Saturday.