An Australian dairy farmer shared a sinister image of the approaching storm that claimed his life just hours later.
Bruce Manintveld was hit by a sheet of metal lifted by gale-force winds that hit his Mirboo North property in Victoria’s South Gippsland on Tuesday night.
Fierce storms hit parts of eastern Victoria this week as bushfires ravaged western parts of the state, while in the country’s north Tropical Cyclone Lincoln, the third cyclone of the year, made landfall on Friday night.
Manintveld had tragically shared a video of dark clouds looming over his farm at around 4pm on Thursday, along with a weather map.
He captioned the tweet with just one foreboding word: “Incoming” before heading out to round up cattle to safety and being run over and killed around 6 p.m.
Manintveld was the only reported victim of the wild storms, as a mammoth clean-up effort began late this week and is expected to continue into the weekend.
Victorian farmer Bruce Manintveld shared this ominous image of the approaching storm that took his life just hours later.
On Wednesday afternoon, Mr Manintveld’s family took over his X account to announce the tragic news of his death.
“Bruce passed away shortly after his last Twitter post Tuesday night,” she wrote.
“I was running against the storm to attract the cows.
‘He rolled the dice and lost. However, that’s farming… you roll the dice; Usually he wins. Not this time. A man who loved his cows.
Rancher and agriculture advocate Gillian Fennell expressed her condolences and paid tribute to Mr Fennell in the responses.
“Oh my goodness, Fiona, my deepest condolences to you,” Ms. Fennell wrote.
‘I know that’s not enough. I had many wonderful conversations with Bruce and thoroughly enjoyed his company on this app.
‘I’m sure you already know this, but he was a great guy. If he needs anything, please ask.
Others also expressed their deep sadness at the tragic turn of events.
“Sorry to hear this, Fiona,” another X user wrote.
‘I will miss Bruce’s posts and farm jokes. He will be sorely missed by many on Twitter. RIP Bruce.’
A Victorian State Emergency Service worker attempts to clear a road of fallen trees following Wednesday’s fatal storms.
Local basketball club Ferntree Gully Falcons also paid tribute to Mr Manintveld on Facebook.
“In memory of Bruce and to show our support for the Baker family, we ask that all Falcons teams wear black armbands for their games next Saturday and Sunday,” the club wrote.
Extreme winds on Tuesday toppled transmission towers, downed local power lines and knocked down Victoria’s largest power station, Loy Yang A.
More than 500,000 homes were without power on Tuesday, but that number had dropped to just over 24,000 as of 5pm on Friday.
Officials expect most of the rest to be back online by Saturday.
Further More than a dozen houses were also left uninhabitable, with around 16 homes in the Mirboo North community in South Gippsland were severely damaged.
Victoria State Emergency Service chief Tim Wiebusch said the number could rise, with around 80 requests for help still to be dealt with in the area.
“The damage we are seeing here in Mirboo North has been replicated in many other parts of the state,” he told reporters on Friday.
‘This emergency is still far from over. We will likely still see, at least for another two days, those requests for assistance being approved.’
A help center has been set up in Mirboo North to provide information and has electricity generators and satellite internet.
In western Victoria, residents are also facing a natural disaster with bushfires ravaging the Grampians and destroying around 44 properties.
A bushfire has devastated the town of Pomonal in western Victoria, claiming at least 44 properties.
A woman walks through the charred remains of the bushfires in the western Victorian town of Pomonal.
Most of those properties were in the municipality of Pomonal, where local residents Damon Henricksen said the alphabeth that around 20 percent of the locals had lost their homes but fortunately everyone had been evacuated.
“Everyone came out safe and sound, so that’s the most important thing,” he said.
“The immediate thing is to try to support the community, local businesses and families, so that everyone gets back on their feet.”
“People who know that beautiful part of the Grampians know that Pomonal is a small community, so it’s a significant proportion – maybe up to half the town has experienced loss.”
Twin emergencies
Faced with two emergencies in her state, Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan announced on Friday that there would only be blackout compensation for homes and businesses left without power for at least seven days.
“Our focus has been especially on those homes and communities that will be without power for longer periods,” he said.
Payments for extended power outages are worth $1,920 per week for households and $2,927 for businesses.
Waste tax will also be waived for taxpayers in 21 local government areas.
Several Victorian homes have been so damaged by the storm that they have been deemed uninhabitable.
Locals assess some of the damage left by strong storms in the Mount Waverley area of Victoria.
Gippsland South MP Danny O’Brien said Mirboo North residents were facing huge clean-up bills and needed more support than initial hardship and limited outage payments.
“Mirboo North is far beyond anything anyone has ever seen,” the Nationals MP told reporters in the city.
“There has been a catastrophic event here and if you look at the damage, it is absolutely as bad as a cyclone you would see in northern Queensland.”
Energy Safe Victoria has launched an investigation into the factors that contributed to the collapse of six transmission towers, including provider AusNet.
“We will investigate AusNet’s compliance with its security obligations, including its inspection and maintenance responsibilities,” the regulator said in a statement.
The Victorian communities of Devon North, Kilcunda and Krowera remain without any telecommunications, meaning they may not be able to make triple zero calls.
The Herald Sun reported that leaked internal documents show emergency callers at one point on Tuesday were forced to wait more than a minute for fire services to respond, up to six minutes for police and 23 minutes for the Fire Service. of State Emergency.
But Emergency Services Minister Jaclyn Symes said those figures were predictive rather than what happened.
“What the data shows is that no one waited more than three minutes for police calls,” he told Melbourne radio station 3AW.
Allan said call handlers were coming under pressure despite extra staff being added in anticipation of the catastrophic weather, with SES operators experiencing their fourth busiest day and police operators their busiest on record.
The third cyclone of this year hits the north
Meanwhile, the last cyclone of the summer has hit northern Australia, bringing gale-force winds and heavy rain.
Tropical Cyclone Lincoln crossed the coast as a category one system on Friday afternoon between the Northern Territory-Queensland border and Port McArthur.
Tropical Cyclone Lincoln crossed the coast of northern Australia on Friday afternoon. Image: Supplied/BOM
Tropical Cyclone Linoln is affecting the north of the country between Queensland and the Northern Territory. Image: Supplied / Weather zone
The cyclone is expected to move west across the Northern Territory over the weekend.
Gales with damaging wind gusts of up to 110 km/h are expected to develop along the coast between Bing Bong and Mornington Island during the day as the cyclone approaches and crosses the coast.
“As it moves inland tonight, the system is expected to weaken and begin moving westwards across the Midland over the weekend and then over northern Western Australia, bringing heavy rain to areas close to its path,” the Bureau of Meteorology said.
There is a chance it could reach waters west of the Kimberley by the middle of next week.
There is also a moderate risk that it could become a tropical cyclone next Thursday.
Tropical Cyclone Jasper brought record rainfall and heavy flooding to far north Queensland around Christmas.
Kirrily hit the coast as a Category 3 storm late last month.