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Thunderstorms ease in battered Victoria

Story Added : 07th March 2010
Updated: 6 minutes ago

The wild weather in Victoria has calmed down, after heavy rains battered the state for a second day in a row.

Yesterday large hail storms, heavy rain and strong winds lashed Melbourne, damaging homes and flooding the streets.

This afternoon storms travelled from Victoria's north, dumping hail the size of golf balls in Numurkah.

The storms weakened as they travelled south, although there were heavy downpours in Melbourne's north, including 50 millimetres of rain recorded at Mernda.

The weather bureau's Richard Carlyon says the storms affected the central areas of Victoria including Echuca and Shepparton.

"Not quite as intense as yesterday in terms of hail and wind damage but we've had some fairly hefty rain totals of around 30 to 40 millimetres in quick time as these storms have moved through," he said.

Damage bill

Around 100,000 homes lost power in Melbourne yesterday, while major infrastructure was damaged including Docklands Stadium, the Arts Centre and Southern Cross Railway Station.

Fifteen families from Melbourne and the state's east have been relocated due to flooding or building damage.

Victorian Premier John Brumby says the Government does not have a damage bill for yesterday's severe storms yet.

"Southern Cross Station was closed for a little while," he said.

"The hail stones there actually punched some holes through the roof there. It was evacuated, it remains partially closed. The Alfred Hospital also took considerable amounts of water.

"The Arts Centre ... roof has actually collapsed under the weight there, the bill there will clearly run to hundreds of thousands, if not to millions of dollars, to repair that.

"In the case of schools most of the damage is minor to modest there's no major structural damage that I'm aware of at the moment."

The weather bureau's Kevin Parkyn says yesterday's storms will go down in the history books, characterised by the large amounts of hail.

"I think we have to go back a long way in Melbourne's records to find a similar event where Melbourne recorded hail stones the size of lemons, 10 centimetres in diameter," he said.

"That's right up there with the Sydney hail storm event that occurred last decade."

Story Added by ABC.
Date Added : 07th March 2010

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