Hundreds of Thousands Without Power After Australian Wind Storms

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.