General News
3 February, 2025
Mother nature's power in full swing
What a difference a week makes!As I write this newsletter, we're into day three of a heatwave in Western Victoria.
What a difference a week makes!
As I write this newsletter, we're into day three of a heatwave in Western Victoria.
Temperatures topped 43°C in Warracknabeal and Walpeup.
The Grampians National Park and Little Desert National Park bushfires rage on, with about 120,000 hectares of land burnt in the past week.
Yesterday, the fire broke through the containment line near Goroke, prompting evacuation warnings for residents between Goroke and Minimay.
Another blaze at the Grampians' south saw similar warnings for Mirranatwa.
Meanwhile, severe thunderstorms swept across the region on Sunday night, bringing lightning, hail and damaging winds.
While much of the Wimmera escaped damage, parts of Geelong and Melbourne deal with knee-deep flood waters.
To make matters worse, 38,000 customers lost power across the state.
Yesterday, the fire broke through the containment line near Goroke, prompting evacuation warnings for residents between Goroke and Minimay.
Spare a thought for the career and volunteer firefighters, who wore up to 30kg of protective clothing and equipment while ambient temperatures exceeded 38°C.
Horsham Incident Control Centre operations officer Jarrod Hayes summed this up nicely over the weekend.
"Those outbreaks have been challenging," he said.