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Tornadic storm

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Kirstin Nicholson, The Koondrook and Barham Bridge Newspaper

“It was horrific!” That’s how Jodie Hay described the storm that went through the family’s farm on the evening of January 2. It was a brief 15 minutes that wreaked havoc on their property and properties across the district, causing damage to crops, homes, vehicles and buildings.

Jodie and Colin Hay had moved their vehicles and tractors undercover as best they could on their farm following alerts they had received through the VicEmergency app. They had been watching the clouds approach and then sought safety indoors.

“We were inside and it sounded like someone throwing rocks at the roof. Within 5 minutes it had gone black and it was roaring like a train and pelting. I couldn’t hear Colin; I didn’t know where he was. I was curled up on the couch, away from windows. It was horrendous, you couldn’t hear. 15-20 minutes later the sun appeared and we could see again.”

The storm wielded howling winds, large hail stones, thunder and lightning and pelting rain. Trees snapped like twigs. Jodie said 50 trees were completely uprooted and fences were smashed. 95 per cent of their maize crop was lost and 50 per cent of a second crop, which now won’t go to head because of the way they were damaged. They also lost 100 acres of oats which had been planted after they lost their fodder in the floods – and it was ready to be cut the next day. Acres of dry feed are gone too, nothing left.

“We hadn’t harvested our wheat crop,” Jodie said. “We were expecting six tonnes to the hectare with that because it’s irrigated – and now we’re getting less than two. So, there’s four tonnes of grain on the ground – that’s about $130,000 worth of grain on the ground. Then, the nightmare of what to do with it now, because if you put cattle in, they’ll get sick. What do we do with these paddocks that are just filled with whole grain?”

The five houses on the property sustained damage, from smashed air conditioning units, vinyl cladding looking like it had a golf stick taken to it, windows broken and glass and debris thrown into the houses, flyscreens ruined, and skylights smashed, letting debris, water, rain and hail in and ruining flooring.

The storm ‘chopped’ the leaves from trees, gardens and crops, filling guttering and spouts with green debris, causing them to overflow and flood one laundry.

“If you drive through Wee Wee Rup now, it looks like there’s a drought because everything’s been stripped. Everything looks so bare; the trees are really thin.”

It’s difficult to know how much rain the Hays got because, as Jodie pointed out, it was blowing sideways and would not have made it into the gauge. 

Jodie estimates their losses at around $400,000. “It was a devastating 15 minutes,” she said. 

This extreme weather event comes right after the Hays lost about $90,000 worth of vetch during the floods. “We reset from the floods to try and get fodder, and it’s wrecked too.”

The Hays are working through insurance now but it is a battle as they discovered that some of their crops were not insured as they had believed, and some not insured at all. Lessons have been learnt, says Jodie – if you’re putting in a cereal crop, make sure it is insured, and watch the wording on your other insurance policies. 

“I feel fortunate that no person or no animals were hurt or killed. Everything that has happened can be replaced. It’s just exhausting. It’s about resetting, replanting. That’s farming. We are resilient, we’re still here,” she said.

Other parts of the district suffered building damage, uprooted and fallen trees and varying amounts of rainfall. There were reports of 40mm falling in Leitchville and 11mm in Cohuna. Storm activity was recorded in other areas of the state, with Bendigo being hit with tennis ball sized hail stones.

The Koondrook and Barham Bridge Newspaper 12 January 2023

This article appeared in The Koondrook and Barham Bridge Newspaper, 12 January 2023.

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