Scenes like this were common place last week as wild weather lashed the City of Casey.By Callan Date
CASEY residents were not spared from the wild winds that lashed most of Melbourne last week.
Narre Warren State Emergency Service (SES) crews were called out to more than 70 jobs during a 12-hour period last Wednesday week.
SES media liaison officer Kanny Lee said the majority of requests for help were due to fallen trees damaging property.
“Most of it was building damage and roof damage caused by trees coming down. It was a pretty strong and a pretty high wind,” she said.
Ms Lee said most volunteers did a 12-hour shift before finally calling it a day at about 1am last Thursday morning.
“Then it all started up again about seven hours later,” she said.
Ms Lee said there were three crews working throughout the City of Casey, with more volunteers also back at the operations centre.
Neighbouring municipalities were hit even harder than Casey, with several local SES volunteers helping out in the eastern suburbs.
“We are sending crews out of the area to help out.”
Commuters on the Pakenham train line also felt the effects of the storm as they were forced to wait with many trains cancelled or delayed.
Connex spokesman John Rees said power cut out at Oakleigh, Springvale and Dandenong and a tree fell on the line at Hughesdale.
There were more cancellations and delays on Thursday morning as the service tried to return to normal, Mr Rees said.
Ms Lee said many SES volunteers were finding it difficult to get time off work from their employers to assist the community in times of need.
“We would love for them (employers) to be more generous. We would really appreciate if they could be more understanding.”
