Recovery effort begins for communities lashed by storms

Regional communities are beginning their recovery efforts after powerful storms lashed most of Victoria on Tuesday.

* About 16 houses in the South Gippsland community of Mirboo North are inhabitable

* About 24,000 homes and businesses remain disconnected from the electricity network as at 5pm Friday

* SES received about 4800 requests for assistance since Tuesday

* Busiest SES units include Monash (902), Emerald (381) and Greater Dandenong (323)

* Worst affected areas are Belgrave and Ferntree Gully and areas in Melbourne’s outer east, and Cape Woolamai and San Remo in Bass Coast

* 300 active requests for emergency assistance across the state

* 80 of those requests situated in Mirboo North

* Relief centre set up in Mirboo North to provide information, electricity generators and satellite internet for residents

* Power outage payments for homes and businesses that spend more than seven days without power are worth $1920 per week for households and $2927 for businesses

* Devon North, Kilcunda and Krowera remain without any form of telecommunications, triple-zero calls may not connect

* Charlton, Donald and Birchip locals urged to reduce water use due to widespread power outages affecting water treatment plants and pump stations

* Mirboo North and Morwell residents urged to reduce water use due to storm-damaged infrastructure

* Yarram and District Health Service, and Korumburra Hospital in Gippsland remain on backup power generators, expected to be reconnected on Saturday

* Waste levy waived for ratepayers in 21 local government areas

* Storms resulted in one of the biggest power outages in Victoria's history, with 530,000 properties off the grid at one point

* About 15,000 simultaneous calls made to triple zero as the storm descended across the state on Tuesday

* Busiest day on record for Victoria Police call-takers

* Ranked as the fourth busiest day for SES emergency call-takers with 4800 requests at its peak 

* SES largest event was in June 2021 with just over 10,000 requests for assistance followed by 9800 requests for help in October of the same year

* Collapsed transmission lines caused Loy Yang A coal-fired power station in the Latrobe Valley to shut down, but widespread outages were said to be caused by local transmission damage

* Energy Safe Victoria investigating factors that contributed to the collapse of six transmission towers, including provider AusNet's compliance with safety obligations

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