Media response - storm damage

Published on 15 February 2024

Approach from The Age

I’m working on a story about how the recent storms have impacted Melbourne suburbs. I wanted to ask the following questions of your council.

1. Have you had damage from the storms, if so, could you please provide examples.
2. How much do you estimate the council will have to pay for damage costs?
3. Are you going to seek assistance from the state government in the form of emergency funding or other?
4. If not, how will you pay for the damages?

Response

Suburbs in Monash were severely impacted by Tuesday’s storms, with significant damage in Mulgrave, Clayton and Oakleigh in particular and some properties still without power as of this morning. We thank our residents for their patience and understanding during an extremely difficult time.

Council staff have worked with the State Emergency Services and other support agencies to make areas safe and clear our roads of fallen trees. Teams are now moving onto clearing trees that have fallen onto properties and assisting where buildings have been impacted. We are incredibly grateful for the support of our local SES Monash Unit in working through this.

We hope that our residents still without power are reconnected soon, we have made Council facilities available for people who need to recharge phones or devices and access wi-fi and in some circumstances have supported people to find emergency accommodation. At this point we do not have an estimate of cleanup costs for Council.

Issued: 15 February

To: The Age

Quoting: Mayor Cr Nicky Luo