By Tyler Wright
VICSES Emerald crews have been out overnight and this morning attending around 50 calls for help from residents as damaging winds continue to sweep across the eastern ranges.
The northwesterly winds, averaging 65 to 75 km/h with peak gusts of 110km/h, came after a strong cold front made its way over eastern Victoria yesterday.
“The majority of [calls] have been tree-down traffic hazards; we are getting some minor building damage and some moderate building damage, [but] not a real lot,” Emerald SES Unit Controller Ben Owen said.
“We’ve got a handful of those jobs now we can put eyes on, assess what the SES can do and what referring to the insurance company looks like for each individual homeowner.”
Mr Owen said there are still roughly 20 outstanding jobs Emerald SES crews are being sent to assess.
“We’re getting help from other units from the city coming up to help us in the next couple of hours,” he said.
We’re not expecting a great deal of calls…they’re still trickling in, but we still need the crews with their expertise to come in and assist with the building damage calls we’ve still got outstanding.”
VICSES has so far responded to 273 calls for assistance throughout the state.
The winds will ease below warning threshold this afternoon after reaching Alpine peaks.
