I was so scared with the wild weather that wreaked havoc yesterday. Early in the morning it was so windy and cold. No rain showers yet and wind was not that bad. We’re still able went to the clinic laboratory for my lab test between 8-10 in the morning. The time we went home the weather started to get bad.
I was having fun watching the winds outside and the dancing of the trees until I heard the sound of the wind getting weird. Things outside flying, the newly planted flowers in my garden were wrecked.
Lights suddenly off while I’m here in front of my computer. Connection stopped. It was raining outside. I was so worried, my hubby called and told me that all trains will stop and he needs to hurry home. It’s dark here so I cried. It’s my first time to be alone with my kids sleeping with that kind of happening on the weather. I cried and hurried through our room. I was hiding inside the blanket. Baby was awake and I dragged him inside the blanket but he cried as he doesn’t want it. I was praying not to heard thunder and saw lighting. I was praying please let there be light. After a while there was a light. Feeling better but still the sound of the winds outside is freaking. I don’t want to see it anymore. I just sit here waiting for my hubby while chatting to some of my friends online to ease my fear. Called it childish but it’s true I was really freaking yesterday.
Breaking News related to the wild storms yesterday…
VICTORIANS were left wondering what had hit them last night after fierce winds that reached speeds of up to 130 km/h, dust storms and rain caused widespread destruction across Victoria and commuter chaos in Melbourne.
More than 200,000 houses were left without power, and some without roofs, as suburban and country train services were severely disrupted and traffic restricted for up to three hours on two of Melbourne’s key arteries, the West Gate and Bolte bridges.
A woman in her 50s died when a wall collapsed into a laneway in Mentone.
Work Safe authorities were also investigating whether the extreme conditions were involved in the collapse of scaffolding in Dandenong, which left a 48-year-old construction worker dead.
The weather, which ripped through Warrnambool and the south-west of the state in the late morning before hitting Melbourne in the afternoon, brought down hundreds of trees and power lines, in some cases sparking spot fires. Telephone services were also disrupted.
Big seas wrecked boats along the coast and in Port Phillip Bay.
Melbourne’s evening peak-hour traffic came to a standstill as two lanes on West Gate Bridge were closed and trucks and motorcycles banned from crossing it. Traffic on the Bolte Bridge was restricted to 40 km/h and the Domain Tunnel was kept to just one lane.
Glen Waverley trains had stopped running by late afternoon because of power line failures and at least five other lines were hit hard. V/Line country services were also disrupted.
Connex spokesman John Rees said there was likely to be a knock-on effect for today’s morning peak travel period.
“It’s going to be difficult because a lot of trains will be in the wrong place (overnight) but we’ll be working through the night to sort it out as best we can,” he said.
The weather bureau said the wild weather had its genesis in cyclone Pancho that rounded the south-western corner of Australia and was blowing out to sea before intensifying and causing mayhem across south-eastern Australia. South Australia and Tasmania were badly affected.
The bureau’s severe weather expert, Kevin Parkyn, said the magnitude of the storms was unusual for the time of year.
The remnants of the cyclone had “filled in a little bit” before it moved across Victoria, magnifying its impact.
A burst of cold air from above the Southern Ocean had collided with seasonally warm northerly winds to trigger the event.
The State Emergency Service took at least 2200 calls by yesterday evening. At the height of the storm the SES took distress calls at the rate of one every seven seconds, as some gusts reached hurricane force.
Today’s Breaking News…
A power worker has died trying to restore power to a storm-hit area south of Melbourne this afternoon, the latest in at least two deaths related to yesterday’s wild weather.
A police spokeswoman said the Somerville man, 38, was electrocuted as he worked to repair a power pole and power lines in Shandon Street, Mornington.
A passerby witnessed the incident and flagged down a police car.
Paramedics were called about 12.30pm but had to wait about 90 minutes for power to be cut before they could reach the man. The worker was pronounced dead and his body retrieved about 2pm.
A spokeswoman for power supplier Alinta said the company was preparing a statement about the death of an employee.
Bayside Mornington, about 45 kilometres south of Melbourne, was one of the hardest hit areas as winds up to 130 km/h lashed the state yesterday. Falling power lines set fire to a house in Mornington while dozens of yachts were driven ashore or sunk in Mornington harbour.
At the height of the storm, a woman, 57, died when a brick wall collapsed on her at Mentone. And police said investigations were continuing into whether the death of a worker under fallen scaffolding at a Dandenong building site yesterday was also weather-related.
