Bayside Avenue Blasted

Bayside Avenue, Edithvale, the morning after.

At about 1am this morning Chelsea SES were called to a tree down in Bayside Avenue, Edithvale. On arrival at the scene, members discovered that the fallen tree was only part of the story.

Damaged fences were scattered in all directions.

Almost a Dozen homes on both sides of the street, had been damaged by what is believed to have been a Microburst; a severe wind gust that affects a very narrow corridor and in most cases lasts only a few seconds.

So much damage in so little time.

"There were power lines down, fences blown in all directions, 2 homes with roof damage and a trampoline that had been blown approximately 100 Meters and onto the opposite side of the road, landing on top of a white Holden Commodore station wagon parked in a driveway" said Chelsea SES spokesman Phil Wall.

The trampoline that bounced it's way into a neighbours driveway.

According to residents, the damage was done in a matter of seconds. Through the night, 6 members in 2 vehicles were on scene for almost 5 hours tarping roofs, removing trees and making fallen fences as safe as possible.

This property suffered roof damage as well as losing all of it's fences.

A section of fencing from one house was thrown into the roof, bouncing off and landing on the roof of the unit next door which by coincidence was also where the trampoline landed. A new fence and a new trampoline and neither of them very welcome additions!

The owner of this property only noticed his fence was missing when he was making his morning coffee.

As is often the case, most attending members just had time to get home, shower and head off to work, however, from about 7am, once again, calls began coming in from Bayside Avenue residents who had woken up this morning to find the damage that a few seconds of Mother Nature at her toughest had dealt out during the short but damaging furore.

Oh what a mess!

During Monday (18/01/2010) we covered a further 12 jobs many of which were in and around Bayside Avenue, but also in Aspendale, Aspendale Gardens and Mordialloc mostly for building damage where roof tiles had moved or been lost through the wind. As many of the Chelsea crew had been working all night and had to go straight to their day jobs, it was a little difficult to field full teams. Sincere thanks must go to the Oakleigh Unit who sent a crew to assist us to complete the outstanding jobs for which we were very grateful; Cheers guys!

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