More than 10,000 homes without power, SES responds to 300 calls after Victorian thunderstorms

Homes in parts of eastern Victoria have been without electricity since Wednesday afternoon after wild weather lashed the state.

A SES member cleans up storm damage in Wodonga

More than 10,000 homes are without power after severe storms swept across the state.

SES volunteers responded to more than 300 calls on Wednesday night and into Thursday with units in Wodonga and Wangaratta the busiest.

A Bureau of Meteorology spokesman said that the strongest wind gust of 106 km/h at Yarrawonga on Wednesday afternoon.

Bit going on in Wodonga atm pic.twitter.com/N7cJCUm4gl

— PatCummins4PM (@JamesConners156) December 13, 2023

Electricity distributor AusNet Services, which operates the poles and wires across the east of the state, said there were 10,700 homes without power across the area it services at around 10am Thursday.

The biggest area impacted was around Wodonga, Huon Creek, Indigo Valley, Castle Creek, Ebden, Leneva, Huon, Bandiana, Bonegilla, Baranduda, Mount Baranduda where 3142 homes were without power.

The Wodonga region was among the hardest hit by the storm.

More than 1100 homes at Lima, Lima South, Warrenbayne, Molyullah, Winton, Baddaginnie, Lima East, Tatong, Barjarg, Upper Ryans Creek, Upper Lurg, Swanpool, Samaria, Moorngag, Benalla have been without power since 4pm Wednesday.

AusNet said is had brought on additional staff to restore services

“We knew this bad weather was coming,” they told the Herald Sun on Thursday.

“We had additional staff, resources and a helicopter ready to assess the damage.

There is still storm activity taking place and there may be powerlines down, so we advise people to keep away from any fallen lines.”

PowerCor, which operates poles and wires across western Victoria, was reporting about 130 homes were impacted by unplanned outages at about 10am Thursday.