Chelsea operational area hit for 6 by ferocious winds

The first of many trees down in the early hours of Fathers Day 2010

In the early hours of Fathers Day (5/9/2010) as Melbourne was being slammed by high winds and heavy rain, Chelsea was certainly no exception.

Tree blocking Nepean Highway at Aspendale

Around 1.45am the first calls for assistance began and as the severity of the wind gusts picked up so did the calls for help. The jobs were split between building damage and trees down many blocking roads causing traffic hazards.

One of the many trees down on Station Street

Ferocious wind gusts sent a number of trees crashing and blocking roads from Patterson Lakes to Aspendale. In Chelsea Heights, Wells Road was completely blocked for a while, Station Street was simply a mess between Bonbeach and Chelsea with as many as 5 trees blocking the road at one time and City Bound traffic on Nepean Highway was blocked for a short time while a large branch was removed from the roadway in Aspendale.

Another Station Street tree down

The 7-11 on the corner of Edithvale Road & Boundary Road almost lost their sign at the height of the storm

The owners of this fence slept through the destruction

And in Patterson Lakes a massive tree completely blocked Legana Court, bringing down a brick fence where it fell. In Coonewarra Avenue, Aspendale, a massive tree branch crashed down, splintering 2 fences as it went and bringing down power lines in the process.

Power lines and 2 fences were brought down by this large branch in Aspendale

The Coonewarra Avenue property after the tree branch came down

The power of Mother Nature was on show for all to see and even the largest of trees were no match for this. Many roofs had tiles stripped away and all across the area, for sale signs, temporary fences around building sites and fences were simply thrown to the ground.

A lucky escape for a loved family pet at this Golden Avenue, Chelsea job

Just after 2.30am in Golden Avenue, Chelsea, a wall collapsed at the rear of a unit, falling onto the owner’s beloved pet dog.

Total destruction

The owner needed a trip to hospital to be checked over and luckily all was well, however, the poor dog was left with a broken leg and cuts and abrasions but was very lucky not to have been killed, maybe cats are not the only ones with 9 lives.

This huge tree took down this brick fence as well as blocking Legana Court in Patterson Lakes

The Legana Court tree was one of the biggest of the night to come down

This Chelsea Heights tree blocked the driveway as well as bringing down power and telephone lines

As the sun came up, the trees continued to come down

As Fathers Day dawned, Chelsea SES had attended almost 50 calls for help and the pager then began a new round of calls from people waking up to find that even though they had slept through it, they had not escaped the fury of the nights damaging windstorm.

Chelsea Heights have a lot less trees today than they had yesterday

Chelsea had 3 teams in Rescue 1, Rescue 2 and Transport out and about from 1.45am and replacement crews were called for at around 7am on Sunday morning to cope with the next round of calls for assistance. Crews were out until around Midnight on Monday morning and then the final jobs were completed on around lunchtime on Monday. At this time the team at Chelsea had completed 81 calls for assistance which was the 6th highest for the entire Metro area. A crew then went to asssist Frankston who were the Metro areas worst hit region with in excess of 280 calls. First thing on Tuesday morning a crew left the unit in Chelsea Transport to assist with the disastrous flooding in Shepparton and members Evette, Aaron and unit Controller Ron Fitch  will not be returning until Friday evening.Well done to everyone involved!