By ALESHA CAPONE
FROM Kings Park to Keilor and across the West, dedicated volunteers received more than 200 calls for help in Brimbank when wild weather hit last week.
As the Bureau of Meteorology warned of winds up to 120 kilometres per hour, the Brimbank SES was inundated with requests for aid.
North-West SES controller Brad Dalgleish said in the four months to 1 October this year, the Brimbank unit received more than 150 calls for help.
“From Monday onwards, we added another approximately 210-plus requests for assistance to that total,” he told Star last Wednesday.
“We’ve had a fairly even spread of trees falling onto cars and also trees causing building damage.
“We’ve had a number of cars destroyed by trees.”
Brimbank’s SES volunteers also kept busy removing trees from across roads, which Mr Dalgleish described as a priority to keep traffic flowing and avoid fatalities.
Mr Dalgleish said the SES always had at least one crew on the road during daylight and more at night as the storm hit Brimbank, as many volunteers had to work their regular jobs during business hours.
Members from regional SES branches also headed to Brimbank to help out the local volunteers.
“There are people out there on the roads and they are working their butts off,” Mr Dalgleish said.
He said a few callers had been angry at SES crews for arriving later than they expected, but volunteers had to prioritise urgent requests such as trees lying on roads and genuine emergencies.
He said the SES members could not fix some household problems, such as broken windows, and only undertook temporary emergency repairs.
Mr Dalgleish advised Brimbank residents not to park under trees during bad weather.
He also said families should also have storm safety plans in place, including a store of bottled water, non-perishable food, torch, batteries and a radio.
See ses.viv.gov.au for more safety hints.
