Remembrance Day storm, a storm to remember

Originally published November 13, 2016

SUNRAYSIA was reeling after a major storm passed through the region late Friday, leaving widespread damage across Mildura and the region’s horticultural district.

A “supercell” storm ravaged the region causing extreme winds, damaging hail, lightning and flash flooding.

The worst of the weather hit about 9pm, bringing recorded wind gusts of up to 96km/h and 25mm of rain in less than half an hour.

The State Emergency Service (SES) said 15 to 20 volunteers were travelling to Mildura from other parts of the state to assist with the clean-up.

Mildura SES co-ordinator Michael Hellwege said the SES had about 380 jobs — while they only averaged 180 callouts for an entire year.

The region was plunged into darkness from about 6pm Friday, with about 4000 homes still without power yesterday afternoon.

At the peak of the outages at 10pm, 21,000 homes in Sunraysia were without power. Merbein was the first to cop the brunt of the storm.

Merbein resident Sam Summers, who lives in Commercial Street, likened the storm to tropical events.

“It wasn’t like a tornado, it was exactly like a cyclone,” Mr Summers said.

“Even with every wet season, we’ve never had weather like it, the electricity.”

A 22-year-old Mildura woman was lucky to escape injury after the car she was driving along Fourteenth Street was crushed by a tree about 7.40pm Friday.

A man was also booked for surgery today at Mildura Base Hospital after sustaining suspected leg and rib fractures when the caravan he was staying in at Buronga Riverside Caravan Park was crushed by a tree.

Mildura Mayor Glenn Milne said he had been travelling around the region and was shocked by the widespread devastation, especially in Red Cliffs and Merbein.

“There’s going to be a lot of pain,” he said.

“But people have been pitching in everywhere, volunteers helping fold up roofing iron in Merbein and the SES, emergency crews and council staff have all been amazing.

“I think that’s the good part of this community, you don’t see them complaining.”

Evidence gathered from the ground and damage reports showed the storm moved in an almost straight line from north of Merbein past Red Cliffs.

The storm wreaked havoc on an area about 40km long and 15km wide, narrowly missing the township of Irymple but severely damaging the horticultural areas south of it at Cardross and Red Cliffs.

John Deering, deputy controller at the Mildura incident control centre, said the information was being used to help Mildura Rural City Council co-ordinate its recovery efforts.

“It’s really about getting assistance to people who need it,” he said.

“Most of the crop damage appears to be in the Red Cliffs, Cardross area.”

Millewa grain grower James O’Day said he lost up to two thirds of his wheat crop in the hail storm, which happened about a week and a half before he was due to begin harvesting it.

The hail storm in the Millewa, Merbein and Red Cliffs lasted for only about 10 minutes, but caused widespread devastation to grain crops, table grapes, wine grapes and some almond crops.

About $75 million worth of table grapes was destroyed in the Remembrance Day storm.