SES fight wild winds

By Lilly O’Gorman
WILD winds and devastating floods kept local SES volunteers busy, with members of the Narre Warren and Pakenham Units working both locally and in the state’s north over the past week.
Friday brought blustery conditions to Cardinia Shire and the City of Casey, bringing down 21 trees across roads and properties throughout the region.
Residents of Millwood Avenue breathed a sigh of relief last Friday afternoon, after a large gum tree came crashing down across the busy Berwick Street.
Wild winds uprooted the tree at about 1pm and sent it crashing down, narrowly missing parked cars and homes.
Doug Moody said the tree had stood at his front nature strip since he moved in 30 years ago, and said it missed his van parked in the street.
“It fell diagonally across the road, and went completely from one nature strip to the other,” Mr Moody said.
“There is normally a small Audi parked beneath it – (the owners are) very lucky.”
Parts of the tree were yet to be removed by Casey Council on Monday and the footpath had been damaged where the tree was uprooted.
Shayne Honey from Pakenham SES said the unit received eight call-outs to trees over the road, and no reports of building damage.
He said the affected roads were in Pakenham, Tynong and Bunyip and little traffic disruption was caused, with only one of the trees falling on the highway in Bunyip.
“We received no reports of building damage from Friday, which is good to see,” Mr Honey said.
Local SES volunteers were also sent to Shepparton and neighbouring towns to assist with the floods currently devastating the region.
Ian Earle from the Narre Warren Unit was sent to assist on Wednesday afternoon and after a gruelling stretch of 18-hour days in Shepparton, Tallygaroopna and Numurkah, he returned home on Sunday.
He said he was keen to put up his hand to help because he was born Numurkah, one of the affected towns.
“I was so busy that I didn’t even get a chance to see my relatives and see if they are ok. But they have since emailed saying they are fine,” Mr Earle said.
“The water was so fast, it was just absolutely devastating. We were trying our hardest but we could see the floodwaters were beating us. We knew in back of our mind no matter how much we sandbagged, we knew we were going to lose.”
Mr Earle said volunteers also came from Berwick and Pakenham SES units as well as Berwick CFA.