Storms: A few reminders…
Tonight, as the skies darken and our beautiful giants begin to dance and sway in the wind, memories of the June 9th storm will come flooding back for many locals. It is hard to believe that we are still cleaning up after that terrifying night when 25,000 trees fell. This week, I noticed changes to our landscape. There are now cleared plots of land where houses once stood and new vistas with jaw dropping views to the Yarra Valley. Still, the seemingly endless piles of tree trunks the length and width of small cars remain beside the road as a constant reminder that things are most definitely not normal.
So as the storm front edges closer (and here is the official storm warning from the Bureau of Meteorology), I thought it timely to remind people to check storm packs, complete any unfinished actions from the last storm, and take action to protect us coming into Summer.
Your Storm Pack
My family calls this our ‘storm be gone’ pack because of my (frankly ridiculous) belief that if I am fully prepared, the storm will either not eventuate or be less intense. Six years ago as a new hills resident (a ‘freshy’), the sudden loss of power caught us off guard quite a few times. Thankfully, when I knew a storm was coming, my North Queenslander cyclone training kicked into gear. Having said that, I have never experienced winds up north like what we had on June 9th and certainly not in the middle of Winter. So, for the fresh hills locals, here are a few things we have in our ‘storm be gone’ pack.
AM/FM Radio
Cash (we use to have coins for pay phones but they’re free now)
Power packs
Torches and solar powered lights
Batteries
Candles
Heat packs
First aid kit
Important documents to prove our identity
Sentimental items
A clothes
In addition to the pack, we:
put items away that could become airborne;
park the cars away from under trees;
ensure we have enough fuel for our generator, and;
fill our water bottles.
The SES has a great booklet on how to plan and stay safe in a storm too. Here is the link.
If we do all this, we hope the storm will play nice and if not, we are prepared.
Storm Recovery
Registrations for the BRV Residential Storm and Flood Clean-up program are closing from 11:59pm on Sunday 31 October 2021. If you were impacted by the June storm and floods and your property is eligible for the clean-up program, make sure you register now so you don’t miss out. The cut-off date is for new registrations only – it does not affect those who are already registered and are waiting for a call-back, site assessment or work to begin.
Finally, What else can be done?
With the bushfire season fast approaching, there is a real concern that the amount of debris still on the ground will convert to fuel for a bushfire. While the large fallen trees are not the highest concern, there are still a lot of leaves, twigs and small branches trapped amongst the debris that make for perfect kindling.
The job to remove this debris is enormous and can’t be covered by the Yarra Ranges council by themselves. The video below produced by the Yarra Ranges Council gives you some idea of the job at hand and a warning that some people may find the images destressing. Our region needs state and federal funding to help with the recovery clean up. Contacting your local state and federal ministers about this concern will go some way to ensuring this issue is known and being addressed.
So the take away messages are these: plan ahead and stay safe, register for storm recovery assistance if you haven’t already done so, and contact your local state and federal ministers to ensure our future safety. Thank you again to the Yarra Ranges Council, Bushfire Recovery Victoria and NGOs such as the Red Cross who have helped us on our recovery journey. Hopefully tonight’s storm will weaken by the time it reaches the hills and we can all sleep safe and sound in our beautiful hills surroundings.
Stay safe everyone.
