Hundreds of Thousands Without Power After Australian Wind Storms

by Rob Walker | April 2, 2008 at 06:33 am
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Winds gusting up to 132km/h are blowing across much of Southern Australia, causing intensive damage to infrastructure and power lines.
As many as 200,000 people are without power in Melbourne and at least two people were reported killed during the storms.
If you have pictures or first-hand accounts of this storm, please feel free to post them.
COMMUTERS are facing a nightmare trip home with wild winds disrupting every rail and tram line across the network, closing roads and causing blackouts.
Connex is running buses on some closed lines and has asked people to seek alternate routes or leave work early to avoid the rush.
“It is about the worst it has ever been,” Connex spokesman John Mr Rees said.
“There have been trees down on powerlines, debris across tracks and power outages.”
“There is not a line that has not been affected.”
More than 100,000 homes are withoutpower in Melbourne, Australia's second-biggest city, after astorm with winds exceeding 100 kilometers (62 miles) an hourstruck. One woman was killed when a wall collapsed.
Melbourne airport recorded wind gusts of as much as 107kilometers an hour as the storm moved through Victoria state,according to the Bureau of Meteorology Web site. A woman aged inher 60s was killed when strong winds caused a shop wall fall onher, Ray Rowe, spokesman for the Metropolitan Ambulance Servicein Melbourne, said in a telephone interview.
One person was killed as winds of up to 130km/h caused mayhem across Victoria and South Australia.
The powerful winds cut power to more than 200,000 homes in Victoria and prompted warnings to people to get out of central Melbourne.
The wild weather cost the life of a woman killed when a brick wall collapsed in Mentone in Melbourne's south this afternoon.
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Jordan Yerman
Jordan Yerman
flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 07:48 on April 2nd, 2008

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5cheherazad3

I've never seen anything like this. The wind was extremely strong and visibility was very low. Fortunately I got home just before it started, however my friend got stuck on public transport for three hours due to the storm.

5cheherazad3 has contributed a photo to this story.

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petone80

2/4/2008 The sky looked thick reddish brown and a little bit eery. I live in Collingwood, the sand didnt hit us but the winds snapped a tree in half in front of our house.

petone80 has contributed a photo to this story.

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