A storm that ripped through the region on Friday afternoon left a narrow path of destruction with trees uprooted, powerlines felled and farm sheds destroyed.
With the winds causing destruction only in a narrow area, the Bureau of Meteorology said it may have been a low-intensity tornado.
Ross Heywood had three lateral moving irrigators badly damaged in the storm, with one dragged 18 m and crumpled as it was thrown into an irrigation channel at the end of his corn paddock in Raak Rd, Congupna East.
The other two 750 m-long irrigators were tipped over at one end, with damage to the three estimated to be about $300,000.
All three irrigators were parked at the southern end of the paddocks and were blown away from Mr Heywood’s maize crop, which he was watering. However some of the corn was bent over or snapped off at the ground in the wind.
With 200 ha under spray irrigator, Mr Heywood is also in a race against the clock to get the three irrigators up and running before his maize needs watering again, or his losses could be much higher.
While it is expected the two less damaged irrigators will be able to be up and working again a few days after they were damaged, the one that was thrown into the channel could take up to 10 days – which Mr Heywood said would be too long for the crop to go without water.
“We’ve got until Friday to get them all working again,” he said.
“I don’t know how we’re going to go with the crop.”
With the crop valued at an estimated $430,000, Mr Heywood is worried he could lose the crop without any irrigation on it.
Adding to his woes, the crop was also sprayed two days before the storm, so he cannot even cut it for silage until the 21-day withholding period is over.
Mr Heywood’s neighbours, Craig and Helen Reynolds, also lost two farm sheds in the storm.
Two sheds at the Reynolds’ farm on Congupna East Rd, Congupna East were flattened in the strong winds, which tore through an area about 1 km wide.
One of the sheds – which was mainly storing old machinery – was only about 15 m from Mr Reynolds’ mother Glenda’s house.
The other – a hay shed – saw the walls and roof flattened, with bits of steel thrown into powerlines and into the neighbour’s paddocks across the road.
The footings from the hay shed were found 50 m away.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Mrs Reynolds said.
Mrs Reynolds was home at the time of the storm and watched as the rain hit the back of her house horizontally. While she rushed to stop water coming under the window and doors, out the front the sheds were flying away.
“They were saying we would get some storms, but this was quite ferocious,” she said.
“It was so quick. It wouldn’t have been three to four minutes.
While the metal from the sheds had been cleared from the road, Mrs Reynolds was still picking up nails on her property and along the roadside on Sunday.
Theirs wasn’t the only shed to blow over in the storm, with another spotted at Old Dookie Rd in the Shepparton East area.
Tree branches still littered the sides of roads on Sunday – with most having been moved off the road already – however, only a couple of roads away, there was no sign the storm had been there.
Shepparton Search and Rescue was called to 19 jobs from about 5.15 pm on Friday afternoon, with most involving tree branches down across roads.
One of the bigger jobs was a house in Marungi which had a tree fall on its roof.
Several power poles also came down in the storm, with Powercor called out to restore power.
For some, like the Reynolds’ houses, power did not come back on until Saturday afternoon.
About 15 Shepparton Search and Rescue members were joined by four Tatura SES volunteers as they worked well into the night helping make the area safe.
Numurkah SES, and Numurkah and Katunga CFA were also kept busy with 34 call-outs in Strathmerton and Katunga, with damage to buildings and trees down over roads – including one that had to be lifted off the road with an excavator.
Cobram SES also responded to 24 calls, as the storm ripped across the region.