Storm clean-up continues as more than 2000 homes remain without power across Victoria

More than 2000 homes across Victoria remain off the grid after massive storms battered the state on Friday, trapping cars in floodwaters, taking down trees, damaging homes and dropping hailstones the size of a 20¢ coin.

The State Emergency Service received about 1140 calls for help in the 24 hours to 7am on Saturday, with Wheelers Hill among the suburbs worst affected. Also bearing the brunt of the weather front were Castlemaine and New Gisborne.

Passengers make their way through the rain at Moorabbin station on Friday afternoon.Credit: Penny Stephens

Showers will continue to drench the state on Saturday morning, but the trough that carried the storm activity has since moved towards the state’s east, reducing the risk of thunderstorms repeating for a third consecutive day.

Cooler weather conditions will bring some relief from the muggy weather over the past week, but the change will be short-lived, with temperatures rising to 28 degrees on Sunday. A cold front will bring colder temperatures on Tuesday.

Just before 8am on Saturday, live outage trackers for the state’s major electricity companies showed more than 2400 homes without power, including almost 1600 Powercor customers in Victoria’s east. Restoration times varied from 11.30am to 6pm on Saturday.

Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Miriam Bradbury said the storms brought a lot of lightning and rainfall to large parts of Victoria, but high levels of moisture in the air had prevented lightning from igniting fires.

The bureau recorded more than one million lightning strikes across Australia’s south-east since Friday morning, mostly in Victoria.

“It was a pretty dramatic one, and it wasn’t just the Melbourne area that had the storms yesterday. We saw them in most parts of the state,” she said.

Swifts Creek in the Tambo Valley recorded the state’s highest rainfall total with 139 millimetres of rain since 9am on Friday. Parts of central Victoria recorded between 50 and 80 millimetres of rain, Ms Bradbury said.

Ms Bradbury said the storms had developed in the southwest during Friday morning before intensifying and pushing towards central parts of the state in the afternoon and evening.

The front then continued across the eastern parts of the state overnight, with lightning activity recorded near Mount Hotham on Saturday morning.

“That’s what storms can do. They come in quickly, they dump a lot of rain and then they move out fairly quickly again after that,” she said.

In Elwood, a man in a four-wheel-drive was swept down a creek after attempting to cross a submerged road, before the vehicle became lodged at a nearby bridge on Friday.

The driver – believed to have been working for a ride-share company and carrying a passenger – had to climb out of his vehicle’s window to get to safety.

A witness told Nine News that when the man drove into the water the “car just went up and was floating down” the creek.

The Nepean Highway was covered in water during Friday’s storms. Credit: Simon Schluter

Hailstones with a diameter larger than a 20¢ coin were seen in Melbourne’s inner east on Friday afternoon, while Springvale recorded 35 millimetres of rain in 30 minutes.

Heavy rain and flooding caused difficulties on Melbourne’s roads and public transport networks, with Burke Road inbound on the Monash Freeway closed and parts of the Mernda line out of service until mid-evening due to the extreme weather.

Staff at the Butcher’s Club at Chadstone shopping centre said loading bays were flooded underneath the complex in Melbourne’s east.

The downpour came after thunderstorms wreaked havoc in Geelong and the Bellarine Peninsula on Thursday evening, with torrential rain causing widespread flooding in the area and causing the roof of a 10-pin bowling centre to collapse.

Barwon Health confirmed several patients had sought treatment with head injuries and limb wounds from flying debris in the storm, while Greater Geelong Council received hundreds of calls from residents seeking help with flooding, drainage issues, building damage and fallen trees.

The front travelled to Geelong after drenching Mildura overnight, prompting more than 100 calls for assistance to the SES.

With Ashleigh McMillan and Benjamin Preiss

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