By Brendan Rees
Narre Warren State Emergency Service crews had a busy Easter, responding to 27 incidents after strong winds brought down trees.
Sue Brauner, the unit’s duty officer, said the destructive winds and heavy rain had kept crews “flat out” on Saturday, 11 April.
“We had 19 requests for assistance that day; not surprisingly many were as a result of trees having fallen on houses and fences, vehicles, across driveways and main roads causing traffic hazards,” she said.
“This is a difficult time for everyone, and while we’re still responding 365 days a year, seven days a week, 24 hours a day, to ensure the safety of our members and our community, we are adhering to physical distancing measures wherever possible.”
Senior Meteorologist from the Bureau of Meteorology Tom Delamotte said between 15mm to 20mm of rainfall was recorded across the south east with wind gusts reaching up to 69km/h on Saturday and 44km/h on Easter Sunday.
Wilsons Promontory recorded the highest wind speeds of 131km/h on Saturday.
“Broadly across the Easter weekend we had a cold front move across the Victorian region from late Friday,” he said, adding the cold air mass on Saturday had brought some showers and small hail with a maximum temperature of 15.7 degrees.
