Dandenong Ranges Storms 2021

Kalorama (hills) storms 9th June 2021 1 year on 🍃 1 year since one of the biggest storms the hills has seen. Nearly 100 properties damaged-a high percentage of them deemed uninhabitable,Still to this day which are still waiting in limbo for something to happen to get their houses back, multiple days with no phone service, nearly 3 weeks with no power (longer for some)- which for us meant no running water also, even double that time with no NBN- which was hard when we were in lockdown and supposed to be working from home, too many batteries gone through to count, and an endless hum of generators across the valley. The night of the storm saw only 4 CFA member able to get out of their streets to get to the station to then support our community, hoping to rescue people from their homes- many of which were told to huddle in and stay until morning when it was safe to be collected. Every other member was trapped in their homes or in their cars half way to the station. The intense fierceness of the storm meant all night listening to every crack wondering what was going to fall, where and on who. Only really understanding the vast extent of the damage the next day when all four of my exits out of my street were blocked - and having no contact with anyone that wasn’t within talking distance, as all the phones were down. My dad was one of the members out all night which meant I was home alone- as he couldn’t get back home until over 24hours after he left. I cannot tell you the community that I have around me and what they did for me that day, I had several neighbours come to check on me, offer for me to go to their houses, make me lunch, so I didn’t have to sit in the wind, the dark and the cold all alone. Having trees completely blocking us in from the next suburb meant that we were to wait for someone to eventually cut their way in or we cut our own way out- and that’s exactly what we did. People were out with this chainsaws and their rakes cutting out path to freedom and cleaning up as much as we could. The community that the hills has it one that I will now forever be in awe of. The amount of people that banded together to support one another to bring happiness back (as well as food, power and light and - for those of us on tank, water) was absolutely incredible. The community spirit was still so bright in something that was such a life changing event for everyone involved. Although my home was one of lucky ones, in that we had not much damage, it was still a time that will forever live in my mind. This video whilst somewhat long, still only captures a portion of what went down one year ago today. Please watch it all to see something more bright on the other end ✨ #kalorama #storms2021 not all footage was taken by me