High winds and yet more rain are set to sweep Victoria today
as State Emergency Service volunteers battle to mop up after
a wild weekend of heavy rain and large hail.
The big storms that have battered Melbourne are expected to
ease off overnight, but heavy rain is still expected, the
Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) says.
"We're not out of the woods yet," senior BoM forecaster Peter
Blake said yesterday.
"The storms have calmed down quite a bit but there will be
periods of heavy rainfall throughout the night.
"There is still a chance we will see some severe storms at
first light on Monday."
A further 50mm of rain was expected in Melbourne
overnight, with winds of up to 90km/h across the state today.
Eighty State Emergency Service (SES) volunteers have been
sent from NSW and South Australia as Melbourne counts the
cost of the once-in-a-century "beast" of a hailstorm that
flooded roads and buildings and left thousands of people in
the CBD stranded on Saturday afternoon.
The SES was called to 5300 jobs between Saturday and Sunday
evening, the vast majority from the central Melbourne area.
"We are working absolutely flat out with a backlog of 2000
jobs," SES spokeswoman Simone Myers said.
"Our volunteers will be out working until 1am on Monday
morning and will be back out at 6am to continue to repair
damage to property." More calls are expected as Labor Day
long weekend holiday-makers return to their homes on Monday.
Wangaratta, in the state's northeast, recorded 68mm of rain,
with 53mm of rain at Mernda in Melbourne's north over a
three-hour period on Sunday afternoon as a massive storm
front drifted south across the state.
At South Morang, near Mernda, part of a roof at an aged care
home, forcing staff to shift residents to another part of the
centre.
Emergency services are appealing to home-owners to stay off
their roofs after five men were injured in separate incidents
on Sunday.
Five men fell off roofs and ladders in Melbourne's eastern
suburbs as they attempted to fix roofs and gutters, Ambulance
Victoria spokesman Ray Rowe said.
"We are asking people to be very careful and, if possible,
get a professional in to do the work rather than go up on
roofs themselves," Mr Rowe said.
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