By Alana Mitchelson
LAST Sunday’s storm did not discriminate, imposing varying levels of damage to properties and leaving many residents across the shire without power for a number of days.
Some more so than others, particularly those in Ranges Ward who remained without power through to the end of last week.
Upper Beaconsfield resident Charles Briffa was shocked to receive a call on Sunday afternoon that 15 large trees had been uprooted on his property by the harsh winds.
“Every year we lose two or three trees during storms but to have 15 big trees come down in a matter of hours… In 28 years, we’ve never had anything so severe,” he said.
“We have a little pond and one tree landed right in the middle of it. We thought nothing would survive, so my wife was over the moon that her clay pot plants were somehow all intact.
“Some of the trees fell in our front paddock and one clipped the house.
“At first it was all a bit daunting, but I think we were just lucky there was no other damage.”
Split Rock Road was closed on the Monday and Tuesday following the storm as a safety precaution.
“It’s been a costly exercise,” Mr Briffa said.
“We’ve now got an abundance of wood to get rid of because we’ve got more wood than I’ll be able to burn in a lifetime.
“Our neighbours have been fantastic and helped us clear our driveway. One of our neighbours also had a spare generator so we were sharing that among some of the neighbours until Wednesday afternoon when we got our power back.”
Cockatoo resident and township committee president Tate McFarlane also lost power about 1.30pm on Sunday afternoon.
It was not restored until about 5.20pm on Wednesday.
He and his wife made the quick decision to leave on Sunday night, with fears for their 10-month-old child’s health through what would have otherwise been long cold nights without heating.
The McFarlanes had also lost access to running water as they have a water tank that uses an electric pump.
“We had power back briefly on Tuesday night, but it kept cutting out again. It was so frustrating,” Mr McFarlane said.
“We drove all the way to my parents’ place in Melbourne on Sunday night, but I had to go back and forth to get more changes of clothes for us because AusNet just kept pushing back the times they were giving us about when to expect the power back on.
“It totally stuffed up my work routine to be perfectly honest. I had to work out a new traffic route. It was a disaster.”
Berwick residents Beatrice and Russell Blyth were forced to throw away much of the food in their two fridges and freezers that did not keep fresh until 4pm on Tuesday when they regained power.
The couple, aged in their 70s, felt somewhat isolated as they were unable to access their car in the garage for days because it opens electronically.
Mr Blyth said he wanted compensation for the “couple of hundred dollars’ worth of food” lost.
“We had a huge amount of food in the fridges and freezer. It’s a terrible waste,” Mr Blyth said.
“When we called up AusNet, we just got automated messages. There was no one we could speak to. We kept being given fictitious times on when to expect the power back on again. If they didn’t know, I wish they had just been honest about that.
“If we’d known that we could be out for a few days, we would have planned differently. We could have made arrangements to keep our food fresh and buy lighting to make the evenings more bearable.
“It was freezing overnight and in the mornings. At night, we would just sit here twiddling our thumbs because it was so dark. Some nights we were in bed just after 8pm. We’ve never had a blackout this bad.”
AusNet Services spokesman Hugo Armstrong said Sunday’s storm was the most damaging storm to hit AusNet Services’ network in more than eight years.
He said that by Thursday evening, less than 1000 customers remained off power supply including properties in The Hills.
“We sent more than 150,000 text messages providing advice to customers and received more than 250,000 visits to our website,” Mr Armstrong said.
“It was difficult to provide accurate forecasts of when individual customers would have their electricity supply restored.
“Customers seeking compensation for costs incurred through this event are advised to contact their insurer first. We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience.”
