A dairy farmer has died and hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses remain without power after Victoria’s destructive storms.
Prime Minister Jacinta Allan confirmed on Wednesday that the farmer in his 50s died after being hit by flying debris in Mirboo North in the Gippsland region.
Allan sent his condolences to the man’s family and described the wild weather as “catastrophic” after causing significant damage across the state.
High winds and falling trees have downed power lines and knocked out power to more than half a million homes.
It is one of the largest power outages in Victoria’s history and could It takes weeks to completely fix it.
A dairy farmer in his 50s died after being hit by flying debris during wild storms in the Gippsland region during the wild storms that have hit the state (pictured)
Hundreds of power poles and lines were downed and six transmission towers near Anakie collapsed on Tuesday, knocking out all four units of the Loy Yang A power station.
At its peak, 529,000 properties were without power due to damage caused by storms, high winds and lightning.
That number had dropped to about 250,000 by Wednesday morning, but the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action warned that progress could be slow.
“Crews are actively working to restore power to these impacted areas,” the department said.
“However, given the extent of widespread damage, it may take days, if not weeks, to restore power to all those affected.”
More to come.