Enormous trees down, thousands without power as wild winds smash through major city

Wild winds have torn parts of a major city apart, ripping large trees out of the ground and smashing into power lines, leaving thousands without power.

Dramatic footage shows the moment a tree was ripped from its roots and toppled over as blistering and destructive winds battered parts of Victoria.

While Gippsland and parts of eastern regional Victoria were hit with heavy rainfall, including 110mm at Mt Moornapa, 98mm in Reeves Knob and 75mm in Orbost, gale-force winds caused the most damage, tearing pockets of the city apart and leaving hundreds of trees downed.

A tree is ripped from its roots. Picture: Instagram

It took part of the nature strip with it. Picture: Instagram

On Sunday afternoon, a storm threatened to hit Melbourne and eastern Victoria, bringing lightning, lashings of rain in the east and intense wind gusts across the city.

An enormous gum tree was one victim of the destructive winds, with dramatic footage revealing the moment it was ripped from its roots and collapsed onto Lawson Street in Hampton.

Onlookers were horrified as the tree smashed into power lines and caused a quick flash of light, bringing the nature strip with it and pulling up part of the footpath.

“Holy sh-t!” bystanders said in astonishment as the enormous tree toppled over.

Bayside City Council Director of Environment, Recreation and Infastructure, Jill Colson, told NewsWire “this weekend’s high winds caused damage to a number of trees across Bayside including in Lawson Street, Hampton”.

“We are currently investigating the cause of the tree falling,” she said.

“Bayside has 70,048 street and park trees and Council conducts an ongoing program to inspect and maintain our urban forest.”

The enormous tree landed on power lines across the road. Picture: Instagram

Thankfully, no one was injured. Picture: Instagram

The destructive winds tore down trees across other parts of the Melbourne CBD, including a cyprus plane that fell and smashed into a car on Lonsdale St, and ripped large tarps off the sides of buildings in the eastern suburbs.

The Bureau of Meteorology reported gusty and destructive winds across the state that reached speeds of 85km/h in Fawkner and 74km/h in St Kilda Pier.

Hogan Island recorded wind speeds in excess of 87km/h, Colac was hit with top speeds of 72km/h and Wilsons Prom experienced wind gusts of 69km/h.

More than 1800 customers were without power in Altona and the surrounding suburbs on Monday morning after a tree collapsed on a power line shortly after 6am.

Another 95 customers in Hawthorn are without power after a tree collapsed on power lines.

“We have restored power to most customers,” a PowerCor spokesman told NewsWire.

“Our crews are repairing the network to allow us to restore power to the remaining three properties still off supply.”

Trees fell across the city and smashed into cars parked below. Picture: Reddit

The destructive winds were felt everywhere in Melbourne. Picture: X

Between 5pm on Sunday and 7.30am on Monday, the State Emergency Service (SES) received 462 requests across the state, 329 of which were to report fallen trees.

While the calls were statewide, an SES spokesman told NewsWire the majority of requests came from regional areas, including Wodonga and Rosebud.

In the city, the majority of SES requests came from the eastern suburbs, including Knox, Whitehorse, Frankston and Moorabbin.

The SES reported 75 calls for building damage caused by the destructive storms and 29 calls reported minor flooding.

Thankfully, no injuries have been reported as a result of the storm.

A spokesman for the bureau told NewsWire that more winds were expected across Melbourne and southeastern Victoria on Monday, with conditions easing across Gippsland on Tuesday.

“Coastal wind warnings are also current,” the spokesman said.

Melbourne residents can expect a partly cloudy day with the chance of a thunderstorm in the afternoon, winds reaching top speeds of 40km/h and a maximum temperature of 26C.

Originally published as Enormous trees down, thousands without power as wild winds smash through major city