High winds batter Chelsea operational area

The Summer storm front that battered the Chelsea SES area

Just before 8.30 this morning, (11/01/2012)  the winds that had been battering the Chelsea operational area overnight began to take their toll and requests for assistance started rolling in.

This large tree came down in a backyard in Carrum and saw a lucky escape for the resident.

From Mentone to Carrum, the jobs came thick and fast including a number of trees blocking roads as well as trees down in backyards and onto buildings. There were some building damage jobs including signage that had been blown loose and tiles being blown off of roofs. An air conditioning unit was blown off of a roof in The Avenue in Chelsea leaving a hole in the roof. In Adina Avenue, Aspendale, a skylight blew off of the roof of a property and 3 more skylights blew off of the roof of Carrum Primary School.

This shed took the full impact of the tree in Church Road Carrum

Click here to see how close the storms came to you with this map showing where all of our jobs were located.

UK visitor Jean recounts her story for 9 News

In Carrum, 82 year old Jean, who only arrived yesterday from the UK for a holiday with her family, had a very lucky escape. Jean was lying in bed, watching the wild weather and wondering if the large gum tree at the rear of the garden would be safe. Seconds later, Jean watched in horror as the gum collapsed onto a new storage shed which took the brunt of the damage and stopped the tree collapsing onto the corner of the house where Jean was. “It took me back to the war years in the UK, it sounded like a bomb went off” said Jean.

This bathing box in Edithvale lost it's roof completely

Even a number of the iconic bathing boxes that line areas of our local beaches, which took the full fury of the winds, eventually succumbed, with 3 losing their roofs.

This Chelsea bathing box suffered major roof damage

Members assisting Police in Mordialloc

In the midst of this, a request came through to assist Police at a crime scene in Mordialloc following a fatal house fire yesterday. Members assisted clearing some areas and conducting a search of parts of the property.

Working at the scene of the fatal house fire

This tree split through the middle in Mentone

In Mentone, a large tree split down the middle and although it destroyed the washing line, luckily, it missed the house.

It wrecked the washing line but missed the house

It soon became apparent that Chelsea was going to be one of the worst affected areas in Melbourne. Some facts and figures;  Between 8.20am and Midnight, 24 Chelsea SES volunteers were called to assist the community at 78 jobs with the first coming in at 8.20am and the last at 10.45pm. The breakdown of jobs was as follows:

25 building damage

40 tree down

11 tree down traffic hazard

1 incident other (fence blown over on foot path)

1 assist police (crime scene).

This meant that we had 3 vehicles (Chelsea Transport, Rescue 2 & Rescue 3) with crews on the road for almost the entire time. Sadly, due to mechanical issues, (clutch) Chelsea Rescue 1 was off the road for most of the day which meant that we were a vehicle down, however, all tasks were still completed and LHQ closed just after Midnight.

The best news at the end of the day was that there were no injuries incurred through the storm or the damage that resulted from it within the Chelsea operational area.