Storm damage and recovery

Published on 14 February 2024

A statement from Mayor Jenna Davey-Burns:

Unfortunately, yesterday’s storms have caused significant disruption across Kingston, with reports of damage to homes and sheds, dozens of trees down and power outages still impacting a large number of our residents and businesses.

The storm event was scary for many people and pets and has left the stress of a clean up job for weeks to come. To those community members affected, we are working around the clock to help clean up and get things back to being safe as quickly as possible.

A truly enormous thanks to our local SES units and other emergency services for your tireless work in our community over the past 24 hours. We are so lucky to have such dedicated services and volunteers helping out in a crisis.

Our Council crews and contractors have also worked through the night and today cleaning up, undertaking inspections, and generally making our neighbourhoods safe again.

Thanks to those people who have reported damaged trees in our streets and parks and apologies for any delays in contacting us during this time as we deal with the high volume of calls.

With so many in our community still having no power, we are inviting our affected residents to stop by any of our libraries to charge their phones and electronic devices (including power banks).

If your property has damaged trees and vegetation that won’t fit in your green bin, you can book a free collection at kingston.vic.gov.au/tree-prunings.

Keep an eye on the VicEmergency and United Energy websites for updates on repairs.

If you weren’t storm affected and have capacity to help, we encourage you to check in on family, friends, and neighbours to see if they are ok, have everything they need and are staying safe. 

Important Update (16 February)

The Victorian Department of Families, Fairness and Housing’s Personal Hardship Assistance Program relief payments are available to people whose home has had direct damage from the 13 February storms and still have unmet immediate relief needs.

(Please note that these payments are not available for people who are experiencing power outage alone).

Application advice is now live on the VicEmergency website under the Relief and Recovery Section.

Requests for payments can be made to the Vic Recovery Hotline on 1800 560 760.