Harcourt residents said a “tornado” on Sunday morning left a narrow trail of destruction marked by uprooted trees and metal stripped from sheds.
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It affected an area near Leafy Lane in Harcourt, which got its name from a storm in the late 60s, and ended on Mount Alexander.
The clean-up continued on Monday. Residents jokingly said people could help by relieving them of some firewood.
SES helped a group of about eight residents clear roads and chop up felled branches.
Ron Douglas was surprised his cattle yard survived when so many of the trees around it were down.
He had fences to mend and twisted corrugated iron on his property, evidence of several sheds that were damaged by the mighty wind.
Among them were Genevieve Ward’s shearing shed and barn. In parts, you could see through the roof and walls.
The roller door of the barn was twisted into a wave-like shape.
“It just had its own little path,” she said.
She knew something was “not right” on Sunday because her house started shaking: “I don’t mind a storm, but it was shaking.”
Oliver Halliwell said the weather event was “scary – just scary.”
He said lighting lit up his house as though he had switched the lights on.
But it wasn’t until about midday on Sunday that most Harcourt residents had their power supply restored.
Mr Halliwell recorded 24 millimeters of rain at his property on Sunday – and then there was the hail.
Drew Henry of Henry of Harcourt said some of his pink lady apples were damaged.
But he wasn’t all that concerned, because he said the fruit would undergo much worse while being made into cider.
Gavin Lang of Langdale Orchards said about five percent of his fruit crop was destroyed.
“Thank goodness for the netting – we would otherwise have lost 25 percent of the crop,” he said.
Paul Eyles watched it all unfold from his property in Harcourt North.
“We were pretty shocked,” he said.
He described the formation of a super cell with a “rolling front”.
Tara Mansfield visited the oak forest on Sunday.
“When you get to the entrance, it’s pretty crazy – all the trees are completely ripped apart,” she said.
The Bureau of Meteorology had no record of the event.