By Brendan Rees
Narre Warren SES crews responded to 39 call-outs after wild weather lashed Casey on Wednesday night, 10 July.
Rain and damaging winds brought down trees, damaged roofs, and Ballarto Road in Clyde was blocked for hours as wind gusts reached up to 80-90km/h in the region, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.
Narre Warren SES spokesman Damian Burns said volunteers were kept active throughout the night and were still cleaning up next morning.
As soon as the storm front hit, two houses within 200 metres of each other were struck by lightning in Clyde North causing roof damage, Mr Burns said.
There were no reported injuries.
Senior Meteorologist Rod Dickson from the Bureau of Meteorology said the gale-force winds were due to a strong cold front with wind gusts around 90km/h to 100km/h.
The highest wind gust recorded was 124km/h at Mt Hotham.
Mr Dickson said rainfall totals were generally less than 15mm.
SES crews responded to a number of calls for help including leaking roofs and tree branches that had fallen onto a car.
“Any (roof) tile that got moved by the wind it certainly let the rain in,” Mr Burns said.
At one stage the lightning was so severe all volunteers had to climb down from roofs to ensure their safety.
City of Casey also had to call a number of neighbouring SES units to help with the clean-up.
Lucky to escape the brunt of the wild weather was Cranbourne Royal Botanic Gardens who reported no significant damage, while Devon Meadows fire brigade did not receive any call-outs.
