Last week’s treacherous gale force winds caused havoc across Victoria with some local areas being hit particularly badly by the storm.
The local State Emergency Service worked tirelessly throughout last week clearing trees and other debris and described the scenes as horrendous.
Daryl Jeffs, a local SES leader, said they had crews out from 7.30pm on the Tuesday night working well into the night and then back out early the next morning.
“There were three houses in Metung that had trees fall on them and two in Lakes Entrance,” he said.
“There was a lot of damage to other properties such as tiles off roofs etc., but it was mainly trees down. The most badly hit areas were Metung and Lake Tyers Aboriginal Trust where the local childcare centre had its roof blown off.”
Mr Jeffs said he witnessed uprooted trees that he never thought would be wiped out. Crews were still working long hours on Friday when the Lakes Post contacted them.
Supermarkets and hospitality establishments were hard hit with the power outage lasting many days, having to dispose of thousands of dollars worth of produce. In the first few days there was also no phone services or internet across large sections of the region, so eftpos was not available. This led to long queues at ATMs.
IMAGE: Whiters Street in Lakes Entrance once again bore the brunt of the storm.
