There was chaos across the region on Tuesday as emergency crews rushed to several incidents brought on by wild winds and wintry downpours.
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There was chaos across the region on Tuesday as emergency crews rushed to several incidents brought on by wild winds and wintry downpours.
The State Emergency Service, paramedics, police and fire crews were called out across the region with most of the damage done before midday.
Trees falling across roads and vehicles were the source of the most concern, but the wild weather didn’t cause any serious injuries.
Emergency services were called to an incident on the Ballarat-Maryborough Road just outside of Clunes where a driver was unable to stop when a tree suddenly fell across the road.
MICA paramedic Sean Duggan said the man was taken to Ballarat Base Hospital with minor injuries.
The road opened a short time later. This was one of the few storm-related call-outs for paramedics across the region.
The winds contributed to multiple SES call-outs around Ballarat including at the Shady Acres caravan park at Woodmans Hill, where an uprooted tree fell on a ute and caravan.
SES Grampians duty officer Peter Keppel said there were about 60 calls for assistance by midday, including a few reports of damaged roofs.
“The jobs are coming in steadily,” he said. “We have four crews in Ballarat responding to the jobs.”
Mr Keppel said more than half of the jobs were under control by midday and estimated about 45 of the 60 calls were close to Ballarat.
By the end of the day 115 calls for assistance had been received across the Mid-West region including 55 for Ballarat.
A third of those were for building damage.
Ballarat City Fire Brigade senior station officer Shane Phillips said Ballarat’s fire crews avoided most of the problems, however some crews were called in to help with power lines coming down and trees falling across roads.
Powercor spokesperson Lyall Johnson said 7575 homes were without power during the morning as the wild weather descended on the city.
However, most of these outages were addressed by midday.