RICHARD BUTLER, Melbourne, Victoria:
Residents along bayside suburbs of Aspendale, Chelsea and Edithvale were woken very early to the sounds of dogs howling in uncharacteristically and eerie quiet.
Shortly afterwards a massive hailstorm hit the suburbs followed almost immediately by some of the loudest thunder ever heard. Some residents in Nirringa Avenue Aspendale felt their houses shake, and though they may have been experiencing an earthquake. John Williams said “it was terrifying….we knew something was wrong with all the dogs howling – but the storm – well I’m nearly 80 and Ive not been in something like this since New Guinea in the 1950’s”
The storm lifted rooves, including more than 80% of the roof of the Chelsea Yacht Club – which picked up the mainly asbestos cladding and dumped it on the verandah and roof of a bayside house close by. The asbestos material having fractured in the storm, distributed fibres into the immediate area and increasing the complexity of the clean up.
Of perhaps greater concern is the ferocious intensity of the storm and its almost ‘Twister’ like character. It came seemingly from no-where, and in a few moments it had dissipated, having lifted a few tons of material and depositing it 50m away.
As John said – “this didn’t happen when I lived here as a little boy – this is something Ive not seen before..”
Yacht club
Chelsea beach
