General News
6 September, 2024
Winds ravage local houses
Maryborough Emergency Services were kept busy on Monday, September 2, as destructive winds caused severe damage across the state.
The Victorian SES received more than 1900 requests for assistance as the Maryborough unit attended seven incidents.
Four requests for assistance at McCann Street in Maryborough, Broadway and Hospital Street in Dunolly and McDonalds Road in Clunes saw fallen trees causing damage to the properties.
No injuries have been reported regarding any of the requests.
VICSES Maryborough unit controller Emily Hooke said local crews were kept very busy removing trees and assessing the damage.
“It was pretty chaotic, it was a case of no sooner would they turn out to one event they would be paged out to another one,” she said.
“There was a job in town where a tree had dropped a limb and damaged a fence and was also impacting the neighbour’s roof.
“The worst job that we had were the two at Dunolly — the first job happened in the early hours of Monday morning [and] caused some structural damage to the roof.
“A job in the afternoon was a resident who had come home to a tree that had fallen onto his car port and significantly damaged his pergola which meant that the car in there couldn’t be accessed.”
Ms Hooke said Monday showed the importance of the community being aware and prepared for severe weather conditions.
“I would like to appreciate the great work from Central Goldfields and Pyrenees shires who assisted with trees over roads,” she said.
“This also extends to the CFA for being poised and ready to assist if the recent weather required their assistance, though we were fortunate the weather wasn't as severe as forecast.
“With such an extensive area we cover and the limited resources the assistance of CFA, both shires and Vicroads is an integral part of keeping residents safe.
“I think [Monday] highlighted the fact that though a tree on your property could look healthy, you need to make sure that there are no signs of termites or diseases because quite often they are the trees more susceptible to come down during a storm event.
“Think about what the worst-case scenario could be and take steps to avoid it.”