What an impact a few hours of gale-force winds can have on our local landscape.
The damage from the recent storm was incredible around Ocean Grove and Barwon Heads. It was quite confronting to see the size of the limbs wrenched from thick trunks and the massive trees upended, roots exposed, over our roads, across our fences and in our gardens.
Once the rain eased and the power was restored, it was pretty clear where the wild winds went as the trail of brokenness littered our footpaths, parks, roads and waterways. Blue Waters Lake looked like a tornado had hit.
The City received more than 1300 requests for service across the region, which is equivalent to about 10 weeks’ worth of work.
A quick decision was made to provide help to local residents by collecting tree branches piled up on nature strips and waiving tip fees for a trailer load of vegetation from the storm damage.
This service was welcomed by the community and I thank the officers for their terrific work in addressing this so quickly and effectively.
As everyone would appreciate, it was our most devastating storm in recent times and the team is still busily working on the clean-up right across the 1245 square kilometres of Greater Geelong.
And this work is on top of their usual maintenance work.
We’ve had a lot of gratitude expressed for the gesture of free clean-up but we are now starting to hear some agitation about how long it’s taking.
Please be patient, the team is working hard and is expecting to be finished within three weeks. The best way to inform the officers of work to be done is through the Geelong City app, where you can make a request for service with a few simple clicks.
Or, of course, calling 5272 5272 and our customer service team will help out. Thank you.
