More than 200,000 Victorians are waking up without power on Thursday morning after strong winds brought down power lines and trees overnight.
Many Melburnians will be spending their final day of lockdown cleaning up their yards and homes, with more than 400 reports of building damage severe enough to need the help of emergency crews by 5.30am.
Another 48 calls to the State Emergency Service were for people who needed rescuing, including from flooded roads.
Those safely tucked in bed would have found it hard to snooze through the noisy wind gusts which were well over the predicted 60 kilometres per hour.
By 4am, Melbourne’s Moorabbin Airport had recorded wind speeds of 87 kilometres per hour and in regional areas the wind was blowing at well over 100 kilometres per hour.
Tweet from @SimonOMelb
The Bureau of Meteorology said the strongest observed wind gusts recorded overnight (before 4.30am) were:
- 124 kilometres per hour at Hogan Island at 9.06pm
- 119 kilometres per hour at Puckapunyal at 10.01pm
- 115 kilometres per hour at Wilsons Prom at 9.37pm
- 115 kilometres per hour at Mt William at 10.52pm
- 109 kilometres per hour at Mt Buller at 6.16pm
- 104 kilometres per hour at Kilmore Gap at 9.16pm
- 98 kilometres per hour at Redesdale at 4.08am
The Bureau warned wind gusts over Melbourne were expected to reach 115-120 kilometres per hour until around 7 am.
It said strong gusts of up to 110 kilometres per hour will continue until mid-morning on Thursday.
State Emergency Service Victoria has responded to more than 3300 requests for help over the past 24 hours, a spokeswoman told The New Daily at about 6am.
More than 2600 people phoned about trees that were brought down by the wild weather.
A further 400 calls were about building damage and 142 were for flood damage.
More than 200,000 properties across Victoria were left without power overnight, the spokeswoman said.
About 199,000 homes and businesses are still without power.
There is a severe weather warning for heavy rainfall in West and South Gippsland.
Melbourne, Bendigo, Seymour, Maryborough, Ballarat, Geelong and Traralgon may also be affected.
A moderate flood warning has also been issued for Mitchell River downstream of Glenaladale in East Gippsland.
Minor flooding is expected to develop from Thursday morning, and further rises to the Mitchell River are possible late in the day.
In the 24 hours to 5pm Wednesday, the catchment recorded rainfall totals of around 10-20 millilitres.
The post Wild weather keeps Victorians in the dark appeared first on The New Daily.
**Know benefits of facebook marketing --http://bit.ly/2RgChw3