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Residents of Peacock Avenue say the freak wind that damaged their homes came and went in 10 seconds.
Peter and Jennifer Robinson's house got the worst of it with almost 200 hundred tiles damaged.
"It was about 3pm and it was out of the blue with no warning. It just come through and left a mess," Mr Robinson said.
"It was only for about 10 seconds. I was sitting inside and it just sounded like a huge roar. Our roll-out awning was going berserk, I looked up at the roof and noticed the tiles smashed to pieces.
"Our neighbour said 'I think I've got some of your tiles here', she didn't realise her house was damaged too. It clipped the corner house and hit our neighbour's roof on both sides, then our roof on both sides and clipped our other neighbours."
Mr Robinson said he couldn't believe the damage that had been done in such a short time.
"I didn't think anything about it until I went outside and saw the tiles," he said. "A lot of the damage is the (roof) capping. It has ripped about 50 feet of our capping off and when it's done that, it's ripped two rows of tiles with it.
"The SES used a lot of those tiles to patch it up and have done a good job with what they could.
"No one was injured, that's the main thing. It's just done a fair bit of damage. But SES were great, they were here until about 11.30pm."
Earlier
Bendigo and Marong SES crews worked late into the night on Saturday after strong winds damaged a number of houses in Peacock Drive, Epsom.
Bendigo SES deputy controller Natalie Stanway said her unit controller described the wind as a little willy willy.
"I don't suppose the Bureau of Meteorology would call it a tornado but it was strong, circular localised winds," she said. "There were four houses together that were damaged. The third house along was the most damaged and we had one crew on that the whole time.
"Fortunately, no one was injured."
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Ms Stanway said three crews - two from Marong and one from Bendigo - started repair works at 6.30pm and finished at about 11.30pm.
"The great thing was most of the residents had spare tiles, so in the cases where they were smashed, we were able to replace them," she said. "We did have to put plastic on every house as well.
"One house had debris destroy a beer fridge and another house had a glass sliding smashed..
"There is a bit of thanks to go to the residents who put up with our lighting and generators late at night.
"Everyone was very understanding and we were pleased to get the job done until the insurers can get there.
"In hot weather, this sort of thing not unheard but there is nothing you can do to prepare for or prevent it."
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