KILLER STORM

Updated November 7 2012 - 2:36am, first published June 30 2009 - 10:58am
ROOTS ‘N’ ALL: A fence cops it in May Street, Kangaroo Flat.
ROOTS ‘N’ ALL: A fence cops it in May Street, Kangaroo Flat.

A MARYBOROUGH woman died after being hit by a falling tree and a man was trapped in his car near Wedderburn by trees blown over as ferocious storms ravaged central Victoria yesterday afternoon.About 70 buildings were damaged when gale-force winds of more than 100kmh brought down trees and powerlines and caused havoc across the state. The 49-year-old Maryborough woman was hit by a falling gum tree as she walked across a basketball court with a family member at Highview Christian Community College, Maryborough. Paramedics were called to the Kars Street school about 3.30pm.The woman went into cardiac arrest after suffering serious head and internal injuries, Ambulance Victoria spokeswoman Gabrielle Degenhardt said.The victim died soon after being taken to Maryborough hospital. Police will prepare a report for the coroner.A man was trapped in his car by a tree while travelling on Wedderburn Road about 10km from Wedderburn but was not seriously injured. He was taken to Bendigo hospital.State Emergency Service north-west regional manager Graeme Poulton said central Victoria had been hit harder by the storms than anywhere outside Melbourne.Fallen power lines caused traffic chaos, with Powercor called to deal with live wires dangling at Crusoe Road, Kangaroo Flat.Gusts blew large branches along much of the Calder Highway between Centro Lansell Plaza and Rocklea Homemakers Centre in Kangaroo Flat.A fallen tree destroyed a fence at a property on the corner of May and Longmore streets, Kangaroo Flat.One man said he had not seen winds so violent in the 18 years he had lived in Kangaroo Flat.He was surveying the damage on the corner of May Street and the Calder Highway service road.“I couldn’t see the other side of the road,” he said.“It went for about 30 minutes, and I hadn’t seen anything like it, not like this.”The SES received about 150 calls in the north-west region between 3pm and 5pm, and Mr Poulton said he expected calls to continue long into the night as people assessed the storm’s impact on their property.Twenty-two of the region’s 23 units were active.“We’re one of the hardest hit regions, certainly the hardest hit in the country. There’s been a lot of building damage. This one has been very destructive.”Maryborough, Mildura, Castlemaine and Swan Hill bore the brunt of the storm.The temperature fell more than six degrees in an hour when the front passed through Charlton about 2.30pm.About 6mm of rain fell in Bendigo to 6pm yesterday, with falls of 2.8mm in Maryborough and 4.6mm in Castlemaine.

Subscribe now for unlimited access.

$0/

(min cost $0)

or signup to continue reading

See subscription options

Get the latest Bendigo news in your inbox

Sign up for our newsletter to stay up to date.

We care about the protection of your data. Read our Privacy Policy.