Thousands still without power as residents tally storm damage

Some Victorians could be waiting until the middle of next week for their power to be restored following last week’s damaging storms.

About 23,000 storm-affected residents across Victoria have spent a fifth day without power, as a hard-hit township in Melbourne’s outer east begins clearing up the damage.

AusNet said it was hoping to restore power to several thousand more people on Monday evening, following Wednesday’s damaging storms across the state, but others could be waiting longer.

A 40-metre tree fell in front of Leigh and Julia Doddy’s Kalorama property, before another flattened their garage during last Wednesday’s severe storms.

Mr Doddy said the couple heard splintering and cracking, grabbed each other and tried to run in different directions before hearing an “awesome smash and bang” as the second tree toppled and destroyed their garage 20m away.

Their Ford Focus ST sports car inside escaped with just a few scratches.

“A piece of gym equipment, of all things, stopped the car from being crushed flat,” Mr Doddy said.

“It is unbelievable it survived.”

Leigh Doddy surveys the damage. Picture: Wayne Taylor / NCA NewsWire

It was a rude welcome for the couple, who just moved to the Kalorama area atop the Dandenong Ranges two months ago.

While they are covered by insurance, power is still out and they are running on generators.

Mr Doddy said they had recently installed solar power and a battery before the storms, but were waiting for a government inspector to turn it on.

“We’ve got all this power sitting in a battery and we’re not allowed to turn it on for fear of a $4,000-10,000 fine,” he said.

Kalorama locals Mary-Anne and Stewart Tyler clean up. Picture: Wayne Taylor / NCA NewsWire

John Harris, general manager of the CountryPlace conference centre at Kalorama, said the place was “like a disaster zone” when he visited on Friday.

He said fortunately his building was not damaged, but it would take two to three months to tidy up the mess caused by the storms that destroyed houses and uprooted trees across the Dandenong Ranges.

“We’ve got about 25 trees in total, but they’ve all seemed to have fallen away from the building, which is amazing,” he said.

“I felt like I was in a cyclone zone when I was up there.

“It was just unbelievable. I’ve never seen anything like it in my life.

“I’m guessing there’s about 50 to 100 poles that have to be replaced on the main road.

“It’s a traumatic time for a lot of people.”

Wild weather wreaked havoc in Kalorama in the Dandenong ranges during last week’s storms. Picture: Wayne Taylor / NCA NewsWire

AusNet spokesman Steve Brown said about 23,000 people remained without power on Monday afternoon in the outer east, Dandenongs and Gippsland areas.

“We won’t get a big chunk of people back on until later tonight when we do some fairly complicated switching and testing once we’ve got the lines fixed up,” Mr Brown told NCA NewsWire.

“We’re hoping to get several thousand more back on this evening.

“We’re incredibly sorry it’s going to take that long, but the conditions out there and the storm damage is so severe that that’s the best estimate we can make.”

Power to some Kalorama residents was estimated to be returning by this Thursday, while for other properties it would be by Wednesday week.

Mr Brown said the company was working with local government to provide supplies to community hubs including food, batteries and charging facilities.

Energy Minister Lily D’Ambrosio said by the end of the week the number of people without power would be under 100.