Victoria hit by golf ball size hail, flash floods
THE damage bill from Tuesday’s severe storm could climb into the tens of millions after “golf ball-sized” hailstones pelted cars and left behind a trail of destruction. Melbourne’s Warrigal Road remains closed after a landslide.
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THE damage bill from Tuesday’s severe storm could climb into the tens of millions after “golf ball-sized” hailstones pelted cars and left behind a trail of destruction.
More than 15,000 insurance claims were lodged as of 7pm on Wednesday, with that number expected to rise well into next week as people continue to inspect their vehicles and homes.
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Insurance Council of Australia spokesman Campbell Fuller insured losses stood at some $60 million.
He said most of the claims made were for damaged cars.
“It is a significant summer storm with some instances of damage, however most damage is typical of the storms that Melbourne experiences,” Mr Fuller said.
The 2011 Christmas Day hailstorm caused $728 million in insured losses, he said.
Marc Angelovski’s 2016 black Subaru Impreza was left covered in large dents.
“ It’s pretty close to write-off damage,” he said. “There’s dents the size of 50c coins all over the car, there’s no part not scattered in dents.”
Mr Angelovski, of Templestowe, said he was gutted he will have to fork out the money for his insurance excess just days before Christmas
Thousands of Victorians were still without power almost 24 hours after freak storms, damaging hail, thunderstorms and flash flooding lashed the state.
About 15,000 homes and businesses — mostly in the regional Victorian city of Bendigo — are still trying to reconnect electricity after more than 100,000 Victorian customers lost power on Tuesday night.
The SES has received more than 2000 calls for assistance in the past 24 hours with the majority of these for fallen trees and building damage.
Manningham homeowners needed the most help in metropolitan Melbourne, with 262 calls to the SES until 10.30am on Wednesday after Doncaster recorded 32mm of rain.
A major landslide at Surrey Hills has shut down Warrigal Road in both directions and is not expected until at least tomorrow. Drivers are advised to plan their travel on Thursday morning assuming it will be closed.
Cars have been destroyed as “golf ball-sized” hail stones pelted vehicles and homes across Melbourne.
A car yard in Knox reportedly had up to 180 cars damaged during the freak weather event.
Outside the city, a massive B-double truck was blown over after being hit with a massive gust of wind about 7.30pm on Tuesday evening.
The Hume Hwy near Benalla and Glenrowan was closed overnight, but has since reopened.
The SES received more than 100 calls in each of the regional cities; Mildura, Kilmore, Wangaratta and Bendigo.
The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) says three to four centimetres of hail had been reported in Nunawading and East Doncaster.
More than 1000 incidents — including damaged buildings, fallen trees and flooding — were recorded on emergency.vic.gov.au yesterday.
Narre Warren South’s Terry Poulton said his property was destroyed by the sudden furious downpour.
“It began to really hit at about 6.45pm and damaged parts of my patio and fibreglass out the back,” he said.
Mr Poulton said his neighbours bore the brunt of the near 10-minute downpour, with some cars “totalled” in the storms.
“My neighbours daughter parked her car out the front and that’s gone. A total write-off,” he said.
“It was honestly a bit frightening,” he said.
“We got a bit of a warning when some light hail came but shortly afterwards the real stuff hit”.
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BOM senior forecaster Beren Bradshaw said the mercury dropped from 36.3C to 24 .3C in just 10 minutes as the cool change hit Melbourne yesterday.
“Summer is the most active season for thunderstorms,” she said.
“One of the ingredients they need is heating. There is a high pressure system coming over us this week and generally we will see more stable conditions.”
More than 20mm of rain fell in Melbourne alone in about 20 minutes yesterday.
Officer and Hampton Park in Melbourne’s southeast both recorded 35mm of rain.
Doncaster, about 17 kilometres from the CBD, had 32mm of rain during the storm.
Hey @Mick_Fanning, sweet surf on Swan St in Melbourne if you wanna grab your board and join me 🤙 pic.twitter.com/J220S4jRlh
— Andy Lee (@andy_lee) December 19, 2017
Ms Bradshaw said the hailstones, up to 4cm, were very dangerous and came down in super cells which swept through Melbourne.
The storms also wreaked havoc in country Victoria.
The bureau said wind gusts of 90km/h and thunderstorms hit Mildura, leading to significant damage.
Chateau Mildura Winery employee Ashleigh Taylor, was lucky to escape with a minor injury after a shed collapsed onto her car just moments after she had stepped out of it.
Winery owner Lance Milne said: “The roof collapsed onto her car. It smashed the back window and crushed the car roof. She’s lucky ... It could have been so much worse.”
Yesterday’s steamy and stormy weather came after a hot Monday night — at 7am Darwin was the only capital city hotter than Melbourne’s temperature of 26.6C.
The overnight low in the city was just 24.6C about 1am, before the temperatures shot back up to 27C by 6am.
Today will hover at 25C with a possible afternoon shower.
Tomorrow will be a mostly sunny day with a top of 25C.
Friday will hit a high of 28C with a hotter top of 29C on Saturday.
A mild top of 24C is expected for Christmas Day.
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