Tarneit and Truganina were hit hardest in yesterday’s storms, with Wyndham SES volunteers responding to 80 calls for assistance.
Unit commander Laurie Russell said the nature of the call-outs were more extreme than usual, and that the unit had received support from other brigades from as far as Hepburn and Dandenong.
“The gravity of damage has been very severe, it was a very violent storm” he said.
“We’ve had houses with significant roof damage. One place has solar panels ripped off, another had its skylights flying.
“There was one street in Truganina where every single house had damage.”
Mr Russell said the clean-up has continued into this afternoon, and he was hopeful that it would be complete by mid-evening.
“It’s very slow and arduous work, more so than usual. It’s not as simple as a tree falling down and just chopping them. We’re on the roof of houses with ropes and harnesses.”
He thanked the Wyndham community for their understanding and patience during the storms.
Meanwhile, the emergency department at Werribee Mercy experienced an influx of patients experiencing “thunderstorm asthma” over the past 24 hours, with patients lining up out the door at one point.
Chief executive of health services at the hospital, Linda Mellors, said there were 185 presentations of people to the emergency department during the 24 hours to midnight last night, and a further 73 from midnight to 7.30am this morning. There were 32 admissions to the hospital’s short stay unit.
The numbers are higher than the usual 100-120 presenting to the ED in a typical 24-hour period.
“We had extra staff come in from home and others stay back late to ensure we had all hands on deck to deal with the huge number of people needing medical assistance,” Dr Mellors.
Pharmacies across Werribee dropped off extra Ventolin to the hospital after supplies ran low.
