Wild weather hits Adelaide Hills: Man killed by falling tree, others hurt, widespread blackouts
A MAN was killed by a falling tree in the Adelaide Hills as ferocious winds wreaked havoc today. Three others were taken to hospital with injuries. GALLERY: SA’s wild weather
A MAN has been killed by a falling tree in the Adelaide Hills as ferocious winds continue to stretch emergency crews and the Bureau of Meterology issues a new severe weather warning.
The 71-year-old was clearing a fallen tree from the road in Tungkillo when he was struck by a second tree about 11am on Monday.
Despite the efforts of paramedics, the man was pronounced dead at the scene on Gladigau Road.
Meanwhile three other people have been taken to hospital with minor injuries in separate incidents.
A MAN was hurt when a water tank rolled over, also in Tungkillo.
A WOMAN hurt her leg when a tree fell on her car in Macclesfield.
A MAN was lucky to escape with only minor head injuries after a large tree crashed on his parked car at a vet clinic in Meadows. He reportedly ducked just in time to avoid serious harm as the tree crushed part of the roof.
Powerful winds tore through the Hills and Fleurieu Peninsula overnight and on Monday morning, as a strong cold front brought gusts of more than 100km/h.
The wind downed hundreds of trees and power lines, leaving thousands of homes blacked out.
The wild weather will continue, the Bureau said this afternoon, issuing a warning for damaging winds and heavy rainfall for large parts of the state, including the Adelaide Metropolitan, Mount Lofty Ranges, Lower Eyre Peninsula, Yorke Peninsula, Kangaroo Island, Mid North, Murraylands, Upper South East, Lower South East and parts of the West Coast, Eastern Eyre Peninsula, Flinders and Riverland districts.
The wind is expected to ease slightly on Monday afternoon but pick up again overnight and into Tuesday morning as a second front moves across SA.
Gusts of up to 90km/h are expected, with possible heavy showers and thunderstorms that may lead to flash flooding, especially in Adelaide and Mt Lofty Ranges overnight.
SES chief officer Chris Beattie said volunteers had responded to more than 550 callouts since Sunday morning, while the CFS had attended more than 260 incidents — most of which involved falling trees.
Mr Beattie said that while winds would ease slightly, heavy rain anticipated overnight Monday would pose a serious flooding threat.
“We’ve also been encouraging the community to help themselves and have been distributing sandbags at Lonsdale, Strathalbyn and Largs Bay in preparation for the forecast weather,” Mr Beattie said.
“We encourage people not to drive through floodwaters, and particularly for young people to stay away from creek beds, and don’t ride walk or play in floodwaters.”
Man killed by falling tree
The death of a 71-year-old man at Tungkillo highlighted the dangers of clearing up fallen debris and trees alone.
Rodney Herrmann said losing his neighbour in the freak accident this morning was “a big shock”.
He said his neighbour was “out doing the right thing and clearing the road so people could get through and this freak accident happened”.
He described his neighbour as someone who was always helping others.
“He would always keep an eye on our property here, give us a ring to say there’s a cow calving and he was just a really great neighbour,” he said.
“He was a very gentle, genuine and caring person that was very fussy with what he did. He was a very kind, loving person.
“He was just well-known, this little community of Harrogate, Mount Torrens, Tungkillo is a very tight-knit community and it stretches for kilometres and kilometres and as you can see there’s not too many houses about. We all look after each other — he was that sort of person.”
Mr Herrmann said the man’s wife was very emotional, but was being supported.
The man’s distraught friend of more than 40 years, Trevor Neumann, of Mount Barker, said his mate was a great bloke.
“He as just the best person you could ever wish to be your friend,” he said.
“He’s a workaholic, he’s a perfectionist. You couldn’t ask for a better friend.”
Widespread blackouts — and rain rolling in
More than 10,000 homes were without power across the Hills at 7.30pm because of storm damage — and authorities say the blackouts could last until late Monday night in some areas.
The current outages include about 1400 homes at Mt Barker and Littlehampton, 1300 at Charleston and Lobethal, 500 in Stirling and Aldgate and 900 at Gemmells and Strathalbyn.
SA Power Networks texted customers in Stirling saying the outage may last until 9.30pm.
Bureau of Meteorology regional director John Nairn said the state was in for a week of wildly fluctuating weather, including likely snow in the Adelaide Hills on Tuesday.
“We are forecasting 11 degrees, but we have some concerns whether we can make 11 degrees,” Mr Nairn said.
“It will be very cold and we do anticipate seeing snow tomorrow on the ranges, so probably from mid-morning to mid-afternoon will be the optimal time to see snow.
“Of course it will be tempting for people to go into the hills but we do know we have those hazardous conditions in terms of tree fall, so I think the best place to see the snow tomorrow is from about here (the city).”
Mr Nairn said the worst conditions would happen while most people were sleeping on Monday night, and the windy weather would be replaced by very still and cold conditions by Wednesday and Thursday.
“We will see very cold mornings, so we will see widespread frost across the interior of South Australia, particularly moving on into Thursday morning and it will be a larger frost that will start very early in the morning,” he said.
The strongest wind gust in the Hills was 104km/h, recorded at Strathalbyn, while Cape Willoughby on Kangaroo Island felt a 120km/h gust.
Caravan rolls over with resident inside
A Gemmells man whose caravan home was blown off its foundations was lucky to escape unscathed.
Mark Castine, 57, was having a cup of coffee when he was thrown from one side of the 25-foot caravan to the other about 5.30am.
“A massive gust came up and ripped the whole veranda off and tipped the caravan over,” Mr Castine said.
“The fridge fell over and wedged up against the door so I was trapped.”
Mr Castine was uninjured and the SES helped him out after about half an hour.
He said he’s lived on the property for three years and never experienced anything like it before.
The owner of the farm, Kerry Sneesby, said it’s the wildest weather she’s ever seen.
“All my fences are down. I don’t know where any of my steers are and my rams have gone missing,” Ms Sneesby said.
“I’ve got a hundred acres here so when it calms I’ll go for a drive and find my animals.”
