Emerald SES volunteers worked around the clock last week after wild winds battered the hills.
By Tania Martin
HILLS emergency services were knee-deep in fallen trees last Tuesday as 100 kilometre per hour winds lashed the region.
Emerald and Knox State Emergency Service (SES) volunteers received the top number of calls in the outer-east.
Volunteers across the state were called out to more than 500 jobs, working around the clock into the early hours of Wednesday morning.
Emerald received more than 30 calls for help, with the majority involving trees falling on buildings and roads.
Volunteer Leigh Johnson said it all started shortly after 10.30am on Tuesday when a massive tree fell blocking Sherbrooke Road near Ferny Creek.
He said the tree had blocked the local CFA in.
“If there had been a fire call-out the brigade wouldn’t have been able to get out,” Mr Johnson said.
SES crews, Shire of Yarra Ranges workers and VicRoads joined together in a massive effort to remove the tree.
Mr Johnson said a tractor had to be called in to help remove the tree.
He said although more trees had fallen than in a usual storm event in the hills, the unit had expected a lot more call-outs.
“We thought it to be a lot worse than it was,” he said.
Emergency Service Minister Bob Cameron joined the storm clean-up when visiting Belgrave on Wednesday.
The storm also impacted heavily on the region’s power supply.
Power supplier, SP Aus-Net spokeswoman Natasha Whalley said numerous trees had fallen on power lines in the area causing outages for people living in the Dandenongs.
“People in Belgrave, Menzies Creek, Selby, Tecoma, The Patch, Emerald, Cockatoo and surrounding areas were affected by a power outage mid-afternoon on Tuesday, which lasted for approximately 10 minutes,” she said.
More than 950 hills residents in Belgrave and Menzies Creek experienced further outages later that night shortly after 8.45pm.
But Ms Whalley said extra crews were activated to help restore the power to the majority of customers within two hours.
“Scattered outages across the Dandenong Ranges also affected small pockets of customers in Upwey and Sassafras on Tuesday and Wednesday,” she said.
Ms Whalley said one of the issues in restoring power to people was also ensuring the safety of the crews.
“Safety is always our number one priority, so it was imperative that heavily-wooded areas were deemed safe for our crews to access before power could be restored,” she said.
“We urge people to always stay well clear of fallen powerlines and report any hazards they see, such as trees on powerlines, immediately.”
