Strong winds caused a lot of damage in Healesville last night when a tree fell on Lyndy Winter's house just missing her sleeping son. Picture: Brendan Francis Source: News Corp Australia
HEAVY rain, hail and flooding are bearing down on Melbourne’s northern and eastern suburbs, with some streets under water and roads in chaos.
Wild wind gusts have lashed Victoria ahead of thunderstorms later today.
Strong winds have dulled in the state’s west and are starting to ease in Melbourne after gusts reached 105km/h at Fawkner Beacon and 89km/h at Moorabbin and St Kilda.
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The roof of Camberwell Target has reportedly caved in, and nearby Burke Rd has flooded.
Drivers across Melbourne, including Knoxfield, Glen Waverley and Sydney Rd, Coburg, are reporting poor visibility and roads blocked by water.
Bureau forecaster Terry Ryan said gusts had peaked overnight at 139km/h in Mt Hotham about 3.15am.
He said there had been “a lot of gusts around 100km/h” across the state.
A large tree crushed part of a Healesville home about midnight, causing significant damage.
The tree crashed through the tin roof of a bedroom in the house’s attic, narrowly missing resident Lyndy Winter’s sleeping son Tom, 22, as an exposed beam fell onto the bed.
The tree fell through the roof, just missing Lyndy Winter’s son as he slept. Picture: Brendan Francis Source: News Corp Australia
The full extent of the damage in the bedroom. Picture: Brendan Francis Source: News Corp Australia
“We’re very lucky,” Ms Winter told the Herald Sun.
“The beam split from the impact of the tree and splintered, narrowly missing my son.
“Had he been in the middle of his bed ... it could have been a lot more serious. A small piece of timber hit him.”
Ms Winter said she and her son were “both a bit traumatised”, but relieved neither of them was badly hurt.
“The home damage is quite extensive, but it’s only bricks and mortar,” she said.
She said the wind was blowing so strongly around their house that Tom had “the trees across the road from us were bending almost to the ground” when he ventured outside about 11pm.
The home carer said her house would need to have its roof and front veranda replaced.
A severe weather warning for damaging winds had earlier been issued for most of the state.
Forecaster Gary Missen said about 1pm that the warning had been curtailed to only apply to the state’s northeast and the Gippsland region, with the worst of the strong winds passing through Melbourne by early afternoon.
Strong winds ripped a veranda roof off a shop front in Wesburn. Picture: Brendan Francis. Source: News Corp Australia
But Mr Missen said Melburnians should prepare for wild weather of a different kind, with thunderstorms forecast to hit from 3pm, with rain also a possibility.
Heavy rain had already fallen across the coast and alpine regions, with Mt Hotham and Mt Buffalo both recording almost 20mm of rainfall.
“If we drew a line from about Echuca to Melbourne and anywhere east of there from about midafternoon through to late afternoon and early evening is when we are expecting the storms,” fellow forecaster Andrea Peace told 3AW.
“They could be severe. We have had quite a bit of moisture around with this rain, obviously it’s fairly warm.”
Strong winds ripped trees out of the ground near Wesburn. Picture: Brendan Francis. Source: News Corp Australia
The SES received had about 500 calls for help since 7pm yesterday, most of them from the Melbourne metropolitan area for trees being blown over.
SES spokesman Stefan Delatovic said the Dandenong Ranges and elevated south-eastern areas such as Emerald and Healesville took the brunt, but the wind was widespread across the state.
“It’s mostly been trees pulled down by the wind, onto structures or roads,” he said.,
Another fallen tree left a small “hole in the roof” of a house in Belgrave, in the Dandenongs, about 11.30pm, another SES spokeswoman Chrissy Paterson said.
MFB spokesman Trevor Woodward said a powerline had also been knocked down on to the side of a house by a tumbling tree in Notting Hill, in Melbourne’s southeast, just before 11pm.
“It came to rest on the powerlines and the force of that pulled the powerboard out of the home,” Mr Delatovic said. “Luckily it didn’t start a fire.”
The SES is advising that people move their cars under cover or away from trees, secure or put away loose items around their houses, keep clear of fallen power lines and beware of fallen trees or debris on the road today.
People should also avoid driving, riding or walking through flood water and to keep clear of creeks and storm drains.
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