Building damage and trees down in wild winter storm

South-west SES units have attended almost 50 properties in the past 24 hours with half of the callouts occurring in Warrnambool.

An SES spokesman said the region received 49 requests for assistance from 3.30pm Wednesday to the same time Thursday afternoon.

He said of the jobs, 36 involved trees over roads and fallen trees at properties, 10 calls related to building damage, two flood-related incidents and one call to assist another emergency services agency.

"Of the 49 requests, 24 jobs were in Warrnambool and 20 of those were in Warrnambool itself," the spokesman said.

"The jobs were concentrated around Warrnambool."

He said other main areas where help was requested included Hamilton where there were five calls for assistance, Heywood had four requests as did Timboon.

Earlier:

An intense storm hitting Warrnambool late Wednesday night prompted 15 call-outs to the State Emergency Services.

Warrnambool SES unit controller Andrew Miles said 15 volunteers attended 15 jobs, between 11pm and 2am, with another three on Thursday morning from 6.30am.

He said there were three call-outs involving building damage and the remaining were branches and trees down.

The building damage jobs included two at Dennington and one at Hotham Street, in the Japan Street area of Warrnambool.

There was a window blown out at Dennington.

The Hotham Street call-out involved a carport which lost its roof and finished up on the adjoining house roof, causing significant damage.

"Sheets of tin from the car port finished up on the main house roof. Those sheets caused a fair bit of damage," Mr Miles said.

He said the dozen trees down, included whole trees not just branches.

"There were a few whole trees down along Raglan Parade, Laverock Road and Timor Street," Mr Miles said.

"The first job was about 11pm and we finished up 2am Thursday. There have also been three jobs this morning from 6.30am.

"Those included a tree on a vehicle at Dennington, a tree down in a front yard and we are at Yangery now to a tree down on a shed.

"It's been pretty busy," he said.

Other callouts in the city on Thursday morning included building damage at a Laverock Road home and roof damage at the Warrnambool police station.

Hamilton SES unit controller John McKenzie said it had 14 requests for assistance on Wednesday and into Thursday morning.

Mr McKenzie said the callouts were a combination of trees down causing traffic hazards and minor flooding.

"It varied," Mr McKenzie said. "There was no rhyme or reason, certain houses were more affected than others.

"The flooding was mainly due to the volume of rain and some residences required sandbagging to protect doorways, I don't think any properties got flooded, as far as I know."

Mr McKenzie said some Hamilton residents whose homes were affected by flash flooding a few months ago, where the SES unit had 70 requests for assistance and flooding entered their properties, sought sandbags from the unit.

"People saw the rain and thought they'd get ahead of it this time," he said.

"Some residents were aware of that event and wanted to make sure they were prepared," he said. "We had some residents come up to the headquarters with empty sandbags or asking for sandbags which we were able to give them.

"People had remembered the last flooding event and were a bit more prepared which was great."

Barwon south-west SES duty officer Costa Chrysopoulos said Warrnambool and Hamilton SES units were the busiest across the region

"They have a number of trees down across the region causing traffic hazards and reports of building damage," he said.

"All up there were more than 30 jobs.

"Considering the strength of the storm it didn't really create a lot of incidents.

"It was one of the strongest storms with thunder, the volume of rain and power. It had everything," he said.

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