Community
30 August, 2024
Damaging winds across district
TREES and bins were felled in the strong winds over the week, with the most damage occurring on Wednesday.
Camperdown and surrounds received a low level of damage compared to other areas across the Barwon South West region, with only five requests for assistance received by the State Emergency Services (SES) from 2pm Tuesday, August 27.
A SES state control spokesperson said there were 318 requests for assistance in the Barown region, with 231 of those requests being for downed trees.
“The Camperdown unit hasn’t been terribly busy overall, but the Colac unit received 58 of those requests for assistance,” the spokesperson said.
“They’ve still been working, but they haven’t been focused in their particular response area.”
A tree was felled over the Darlington-Camperdown Road in the early hours of Wednesday morning, but was quickly cleared by the Camperdown SES unit.
Temporary road signs were also blown over in the strong winds.
The SES spokesperson said damaging north to north-westerly winds were expected to redevelop over parts of Victoria on Thursday.
“Another cold front is due to pass through the state on Friday (today) and for the south-west coast damaging west to north-westerly winds are reaching 50km to 65km, with peak gusts of around 90km are possible during the early hours of Friday morning and again on Friday evening as the second front approaches,” the spokesperson said.
“Whilst the winds might have settled, we’re still expecting strong winds into today and over the weekend.”
Over 2000 calls for assistance were made from 2pm Tuesday across Victoria.
The SES spokesperson encouraged residents to stay informed through the VicEmergency app or by visiting emergency.vic.gov.au/respond, or by listening to emergency broadcasters.
“For emergency assistance call 13 25 00 to receive assistance from VicSES,” the spokesperson said.
“We always want to give a shout-out to our hardworking volunteers.”