By Tate Papworth
Much needed rainfall hit the state yesterday and while it offered relief for fire ravaged areas, it brought destruction to parts of Brimbank.
St Albans was lashed with a 77mm downpour within the space of an hour, while Keilor received 45mm and Sunshine North 34mm.
The Brimbank SES unit was the busiest in the central region, receiving 100 requests for assistance.
Most of its call outs were for St Albans (29), Hillside (20) and Taylors Lakes (17).
Across the central district crews were called to a total of 369 requests for assistance with building damage (138), flooding (102) and fallen trees (96) the main causes of concern.
Brimbank Shopping Centre was also impacted, forced to close early after the heavy rain caused the roof to cave in and water to flood into the centre.
A handful of stores received minor damage, but the centre was back open for business at 9am Thursday.
A spokesman at the Bureau of Meteorology said St Albans received the most rainfall of anywhere in the state.
“The 77mm at St Albans was the highest of anywhere in the state. I’t pretty rare. We see flash storm events from time to time, but that amount of rainfall is significant,“ he said.
“Most fell within the space of an hour and we even had a 15-minute period where 33mm fell.“
But there were amazing scenes across the municipality.
At Watergardens Town Centre the usually docile Taylors Creek was running rapidly, suburban streets resembled creeks and a sinkhole opened up at a Keilor home.
