The clean-up continues after a “mini tornado” ripped through Altona Meadows and Seabrook on Monday night.
A severe weather warning was issued about 4pm with wind gusts of 89km/h recorded at Laverton at 5.50pm.
Some were cooling off at the beach after the mercury reached 35.6 degrees, when the storm suddenly struck. The temperature dropped 12 degrees in 30 minutes at 5.30pm.
Hobsons Bay SES received about 130 calls for assistance.
Unit controller Craig MacCallum said the calls were virtually all from Altona Meadows and Seabrook.
“It was predominantly building damage,” he said.
“Most of the houses have had roof tiles blown off; there was a couple that had some windows blown in.
“We’ve had some trees down.
We’ve had reports that there’s a tree down on path between Millers Rd & Yarraville, path along the freeway. Thanks for the pic Mark H. pic.twitter.com/vSNAWffbtd
— Bicycle Network (@bicycle_network) November 21, 2016
“Yesterday, we had five other SES crews helping us in the evening.
“Today, we’ve had some CFA crews going around doing reconnaissance to some of the addresses, seeing actually what the damage was and if people still needed us.
“Plus, we’ve also got five MFB crews here with their trucks and they’re doing temporary patch-ups on some of the roofs.
“They’re actually getting up and putting plastic on where the tiles should be, so pretty full-on at the moment.”
Just had a mini tornado pass through Altona Meadows https://t.co/IHVLNGsUF2 — Melbourne Reddit (@MelbourneReddit) November 21, 2016
Footscray SES controller Faye Bendrups said despite high winds in the inner-west, Maribyrnong escaped the worst of the damage.
Footscray crews were nevertheless kept busy in the Wyndham area and CBD.
“We had one unit deployed to the CBD where a building site scaffolding had collapsed,” she said.
“We had another crew deployed to Wyndham where wind gusts had created a lot of wind damage.”
A Footscray boat crew also assisted in the search for the body of a woman who drove her car into the Yarra River around 11pm.
One crew was continuing to assist with the mop-up in Wyndham on Tuesday.
with Benjamin Millar
