By Bridget Brady
CEILINGS collapsed and movie-goers had a big-screen storm experience when wild weather caused the evacuation of Westfield Fountain Gate shopping centre last week.
Centre management is still counting the costs of last Thursday’s destructive storm that hit Narre Warren and Berwick in the afternoon and also saw the City of Casey council offices evacuated.
The centre court area of the shopping centre was the worst hit, with ceilings in some shops caving in and water damage to stock.
“It was like someone was pouring water through the centre” Jetty Surf manager Sarah Johnson said.
Ms Johnson said the room where the shop’s lay-bys were kept was water damaged, as were a few $700 lay-bys for Christmas presents.
“At the moment we will be trying to replace the items to the best of our ability,” she said last week.
Twelve stores remained closed the next day, and all were expected to be open today.
Movie-goer Maddie, 17, from Pakenham, was watching the much-anticipated New Moon when the storm hit.
“The whole cinema was raining. It just looked like a waterfall,” Maddie said. “I was so scared, I was freaking out. All I wanted to do was watch New Moon.”
Westfield spokeswoman Julia Clarke said the shopping centre was evacuated on the advice of authorities and the expert advice from engineers was sought before people were allowed back in.
She said there was no estimate of the cost of the damage at this stage, and retailers would arrange any issues of damaged stock with their insurance companies.
Narre Warren SES controller Tim Howell said his team responded to about 180 requests for help on Thursday in Berwick and Narre Warren, including the major incident at Westfield Fountain Gate.
“It was a very busy day and we had extra crews in from Chelsea, Waverley, Oakleigh and Emerald,” Mr Howell said.
The jobs started to come in about 3pm on Thursday and SES members were still cleaning up the mess on Sunday afternoon.
Flash flooding caused damage to property and included water in houses, trees down and traffic hazards,” Mr Howell said. “At the time we were the second busiest unit in metro Melbourne.”
Mr Howell said he wanted to thank the extra crews who helped out and also affected residents for their patience as jobs were prioritised.
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