Wild winds are easing after battering Victoria overnight, prompting more thousands of calls for help.
Strong winds up to 120km/h hit parts of Victoria overnight including Melbourne which copped most of the damage.
The Victorian SES has had 3,600 call-outs across the state over the past 12 hours, with most for trees down and building damage.
It has also caused power outages across the state affecting over 233,000 homes and businesses.
The entire town of Trentham has been blocked by falling trees, where SES crews are understood to have been trying to reach a woman who was in labour at about 6.30am.
A tree smashed through the roof of a house during last night’s storm in Emerald, Victoria (pictured)
Another mother and her young son are understood to have been rescued by police in Olinda, after a tree trapped them inside their house.
The mother called emergency services after 11pm last night and reported she and the child have become separated in the house.
Around 48 people have been rescued, and there have been nearly 400 reports of building damage.
Lilydale and Emerald in the city’s outer southeast have been among the hardest-hit areas.
The wild weather has left more than 180,000 customers across the state without power and delayed some Melbourne train services on Thursday morning.
West Gippsland is also on alert for riverine flooding after Mt Baw Baw, Mt Tassie and the Thomson-Yarra Divide all recorded rainfall totals over 200mm.
Victorian SES commander Jackson Bell said he had not seen a weather event like it for some time.
‘We’ve got one part of the state experiencing the significant rain and then we’ve got another part of the state, particularly metropolitan Melbourne and other parts, experiencing significant wind of extraordinary amounts of speed,’ he told Nine’s Today.
‘As you would have seen from the devastation, it will be days to come in the clean up that’s for sure.’
Wild winds are easing after battering Victoria overnight (pictured), prompting more than 150 calls for help. Pictured: Tree ripped from the roots
There is also potential for major flooding in the state’s east. Pictured: Tree ripped from the roots
A severe weather warning for damaging winds remains current for southern parts of Victoria, and northern parts of Tasmania are in a similar boat.
In NSW, the regional NSW towns of Orange in the state’s Central West and Oberon in the Central Tablelands have been turned into winter wonderlands.
The cold snap has brought widespread snow in the ranges, with the Perisher Valley receiving a dump of about half a metre.
Sydney is expected to reach only 11C on Thursday as the mercury in some NSW areas dips more than 10 degrees below average for this time of year.
With unseasonable low temperatures in Queensland as well, the Sunshine State’s Granite Belt had also expected a rare dusting of snow.
Victoria has been by wild winds impacting many homes. Pictured: Tree ripped from the roots
Several homes were impacted by falling trees. Pictured: Tree fallen on to the road
But it has been a no-show thus far over the peaks around Stanthorpe, with current conditions too dry.
There is also potential for major flooding in the state’s east, with the Bureau of Meteorology warning about a system intensifying on Wednesday and Thursday.
‘The last time we saw flooding of this (potential) magnitude through parts of west Gippsland was around 2012,’ Bureau of Meteorology Senior Forecaster Tom Delamotte said.
He added it was ‘quite unusual’ for this time of year.
A severe weather warning for parts of the state’s North East and Gippsland regions was cancelled early on Tuesday morning following strong overnight winds.
Alpine areas including Mt Buller and Mt William recorded wind gusts of more than 100km/h.
The Victorian SES received more than 150 calls for assistance due to the damaging winds
Rapid intensifying of a low-pressure system will bring more heavy rain to the state
There is also potential for major flooding in the state’s east, with the Bureau of Meteorology warning about a system intensifying on Thursday.
‘The last time we saw flooding of this (potential) magnitude through parts of west Gippsland was around 2012,’ Bureau of Meteorology Senior Forecaster Tom Delamotte said.
He added it was ‘quite unusual’ for this time of year.
A severe weather warning for parts of the state’s North East and Gippsland regions was cancelled early on Tuesday morning following strong overnight winds.
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Alpine areas including Mt Buller and Mt William recorded wind gusts of more than 100km/h.
Closer to Melbourne, Kilmore (91km/h) and Fawkner (72km/h) north of the city were also hit by the powerful gusts.
The weather front brought about 25mm of rain to the townships of Portland and Dartmoor in southwest Victoria.
Emerald, Sorrento and Gisborne on the outskirts of Melbourne were the worst affected areas
Gippsland residents in the state’s east are being warned of the potential for major flooding
Now Gippsland residents in the state’s east are being warned of the potential for major flooding.
Emergency Services Meteorologist Kevin Parkyn said over the next 24-28 hours, a weather event known as a cyclogenesis will unfold over the Tasman Sea.
This rapid intensifying of a low-pressure system will bring heavy rain.
‘We have a special name for this type of weather system and they’re called east coast lows,’ he said.
‘It’s quite common and known by the Gippsland community and the emergency services because it’s these events … that result in heavy rain into Gippsland.’
The weather system is expected to arrive on Wednesday and intensify during the night, with falls of 20-50mm forecast.
‘As that rainfall intensifies Wednesday night into Thursday, that’s when we are really concerned,’ Mr Parkyn said.
‘The rain rates look heavy enough. Flash flooding through Gippsland, particularly the foothills, the Baw Baw Plateau, Strzelecki Ranges are a particular concern.
‘So by Thursday lunchtime we could have seen cumulative totals right across the region of 100mm, with as much as 200mm for some of these more elevated locations.’
