By Jed Lanyon
Emergency services were still working hard to clear driveways and properties of felled trees across the Yarra Valley almost a week after devastating storms swept across the state on 9 June.
Waking to the destruction the next morning, the community banded together to bring warmth, food and a place to stay to strangers and neighbours without power and hot water.
Speaking to Star Mail on Tuesday 15 June, Healesville SES Unit Controller Andrew Worley said things were slowly returning “back to normal” as parts of Healesville regained power and his unit caught up with the many calls for assistance.
“Of the incidents we’ve attended, the vast majority have been tree down traffic hazards, with trees over roads and many trees blocking access to people’s properties so they can’t get in and out,” he said.
Areas in Healesville and Yarra Glen were primarily impacted by flooding, where the priority of the SES unit became preparing local residents with sandbagging as rising water levels threatened properties.
“It was about stopping the water from coming into people’s houses and then for others trying to prevent the damage from getting worse.”
Lilydale SES were smashed by calls for assistance spanning across the Yarra Valley and Dandenong Ranges, according to unit controller Shaun Caulfield.
“We had our busiest year on record last year where we responded to 1183 jobs for the entire 12 months. We’ve had about 1260 jobs requested in the last five days (from 15 June) and we’re still getting on to them.”
The Lilydale SES teams had their truck damaged after it hit a rock while responding to an emergency. They worked with Healesville SES to borrow one of their vehicles to help carry goods to the worst impacted areas of Kalorama and Mt Dandenong.
Social media notice boards and community pages lit up with offers for people without a liveable house to take refuge. Businesses opened up their doors for people to stay warm, charge their phones and eat comfort food.
Branded Burgers and Bar co-owner Gina Braidner said the fallout from the storm was a “nightmare”. The restaurant decided to hire a generator on Friday night in order to run the business at half capacity before power was returned on Sunday morning.
“We were facing the prospect of losing $5000 of stock, so we had to make the decision to lose the stock and write it off and leave the staff without work for the weekend or to get a generator and be there for the community and give the staff some hours and that’s what we opted for.”
In Silvan, Carter Bros. Fruit and Veg gave away 50 boxes of fresh food for community members in need. Other businesses provided the simple gesture of electricity.
“We are lucky enough to have power. If you don’t, please use ours,” posted the business owner of Healesville’s Kitchen And Butcher, who left a microwave, kettle and toaster outside their store for community use.”
Val Amour Salon put up their shower, washing machine and dryer for Healesville locals and even offered free hair washing.
Locals and SES members alike were grateful for the support of their community and a much needed free feed in the aftermath of the extreme weather event.
“There’s been lots of community support for people. People helping out neighbours. The CFA brigades coming out and just checking on people,” Lilydale SES unit controller Shaun Caulfield said.
“They were just literally going around checking every house and making sure people were ok and that’s fantastic because that’s their community, they have a lot of members living in those houses as well.
“We’ve had people offer us catering and many individuals offering to come down and supply meals and bags of groceries and snacks and muesli bars.”
Healesville SES members arrived to clear a tree that had fallen onto a carport, damaging two cars. The neighbours kids watched on and presented the volunteers with a box of chocolates and a card thanking them for their efforts.
“It’s great. Especially when everybody’s working so hard and is tired and thinking about what is going on in their own home,” Mr Worley said. “Just to have that recognition even if it’s something small like that, it’s rewarding and it reminds us why we do what we do.
“The support has been great as we’re driving around from one job to another. People are waving to us at every job we attend and people are very grateful and have offered us tea and coffees even though they didn’t have any power to make it.”
