By Cassandra Morgan and Hannah Kennelly
A man is dead and a woman has been flown to hospital after a falling tree crushed their vehicle at Gellibrand on Wednesday afternoon as wild weather lashed Victoria.
Emergency services said the vehicle was travelling along Main Road in the Otway Ranges town about 1.30pm when the tree fell on the car, trapping both occupants.
The driver was fatally injured and a passenger suffered lower body injuries when a tree crushed their car at Gellibrand, south of Colac.Credit: Nine News
Ambulance Victoria said a woman aged in her 70s was flown to The Alfred hospital in a stable condition with lower body injuries. No details were released about the male driver.
The State Emergency Service said it had responded to more than 1200 calls for help over the past 24 hours, with multiple reports of fallen trees on vehicles, train lines and roads.
Thousands of Victorians were without power on Wednesday evening, with the state’s west hit the hardest.
Powercor reported 5182 unplanned outages, with areas such as Brunswick and Brookfield estimated to wait until after midnight for power to return. AusNet, United Energy and Jemena also reported outages for hundreds of customers.
Metro Trains told commuters to expect delays after a fallen free disrupted the Belgrave line. Buses were to replace Ringwood trains.
The Bureau of Meteorology issued an updated weather warning about 5pm, saying damaging wind with peak gusts of about 100km/h were possible across Melbourne.
It cancelled the severe weather warning for the state’s south-west, north and north-east after 6.30pm on Wednesday. The warning is still in place for people in the state’s east.
Johny Chhy narrowly escaped harm after a tree crushed his blue car in Footscray. Credit: Jason South
Wilsons Prom recorded a 154km/h wind gust this afternoon and Mount Gellibrand was lashed by gusts of up to 131km/h.
The bureau also issued warnings for high tides and damaging surf for Gippsland coastal areas.
“At Lakes Entrance, water levels are likely to exceed the highest tide of the year by 0.3 to 0.5 metres during this afternoon’s high tide,” the warning said.
“Low lying coasts about the Gippsland Lakes are most at risk of inundation until 7pm.”
In Melbourne’s inner west, Johny Chhy was standing inside Footscray police station just after 4pm on Wednesday when he heard a loud crash.
His company car, which he’d parked outside the station minutes earlier, had been crushed by a falling tree.
“The tree completely smashed three cars, but unfortunately the main one was mine,” the 29-year-old said.
“When I parked, there was a car next to me, but they left five minutes earlier. It’s all pretty crazy.”
In Dandenong, volunteers freed a person trapped inside their caravan by a fallen tree. In Glen Waverley, a tree fell onto the roof of a home, causing part of it to collapse.
The Bureau of Meteorology said damaging wind would persist throughout the rest of Wednesday before backing off in the evening, with a severe weather warning in effect for much of the lower half of the state.
“We have got more weather systems waiting in the wings ready to rush across south-eastern Australia, and that’s going to bring another pulse of strong winds,” meteorologist Angus Hines warned.
The wind would strengthen once again before Thursday’s end, then persist through Friday and the weekend, Hines said.
“It’s certainly pretty windy for today and the days ahead across most of Victoria. Some parts of the north of the state won’t bear the brunt of the wind,” he said.
On Wednesday, Avalon recorded wind gusts of 96km/h at 1.36am, while St Kilda recorded gusts of 81km/h at 5.27am. Cape Otway recorded 124km/h gusts at 4.20am and Wilsons Promontory recorded 119km/h at 8.10am.
“Wind gusts of 90km/h remain possible through pretty broad parts of Victoria today,” Hines said.
“In the days ahead, we could see gusts again getting close to that – perhaps not quite as strong as what we’ve seen today by the time we roll through to the weekend – but certainly, 90 to 100km/h wind gusts for large parts of the state between Friday and Sunday.
“[They’re] definitely strong enough to have quite an impact and cause some damage.”
Hines warned Victorians should be on the lookout for fallen trees, and trampolines, rubbish bins, and the odd fence panel being blown away.
The state could also see further power outages in the coming days, he said.
The State Emergency Service said the community should remain vigilant when travelling through high wind.
“In areas with localised power outages impacted by the storm, network crews continue to endure challenging weather conditions, fallen trees and access issues to repair damaged powerlines and critical energy infrastructure,” a spokesman said.
They urged Victorians to stay up to date with the latest weather warnings.
A coastal warning for damaging surf and abnormally high tides was also in effect on Wednesday.
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