By NATALIE GALLENTI
MELTON residents were holding onto their hats and battening down the hatches last week as wild weather wreaked havoc across the state.
Damaging winds swept across the municipality as Melton State Emergency Service volunteers responded to 152 requests for assistance.
SES Public Information Officer Phillip Tori said of most of the callouts were to clear fallen trees that had landed on fences, in front yards or on vehicles.
Mr Tori said while Melton had a high number of callouts, it was well behind Wyndham and Altona in Melbourne’s West.
He also praised the local CFA and Bacchus Marsh crew for assisting Melton SES in the clean-up.
Mr Tori said the total number of calls for help throughout the state was around 6000 with more than 60 units responding throughout the treacherous four days. He said wind gusts of up to 120km per hour – the sort you’d see in a Category 1 cyclone – lashed Melbourne with suburbs in the east bearing the brunt of the damage.
“About two-thirds of the received calls were about trees that had been blown down, with the remainder reporting damage to buildings. Much of the damage was minor – tin roofs lifting in the wind, fences blowing down and the like – but some were not so lucky,” Mr Tori said.
He commended the work of SES volunteers across Victoria and said without their commitment members of the public could have been waiting much longer for life to return to normal.
