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The Moorabool News – 22 February, 2022 Page 3
Stories highlight storm experiences A Blackwood woman has shared her experience during last October’s storm, and though she was terrified, she was also amazed by the outpouring of support from the community. Grace Rankin has a respiratory illness and relies on oxygen therapy to breathe at night, and said that while the storms in June and October were both scary, the October storm was more frightening. When power went out across much of Moorabool Shire, including Blackwood, on Thursday 28 October 2021, Grace was left unable to power her home oxygen concentrator. “It was pretty awful really. I don’t frighten easy, but I was frightened, and I guess my anxiety made my breathing even more difficult,” Ms Rankin said. “I had no power to use my concentrator… fortunately I’ve got bottles, but one of them was almost empty and because it was dark, I wouldn’t have been able to connect the other one up. I just didn’t know which way to turn.” Ms Rankin had been in contact with Moorabool’s Storm Recovery Team after the June storm, and Community Recovery
Officer Kristi Sullivan realised how vulnerable Ms Rankin was without power. “Kristi rang and she was amazing. She was just in touch all the time and she organised the CERT team to come, and they took me to Daylesford hospital which was amazing,” Ms Rankin said. Korweinguboora local Andrew Phillips
sees the bright side of losing the trees surrounding his property, saying “We never used to get sunlight in winter”. It took Andrew and his partner eight hours to cut their way out from the front door of their Korweinguboora property to where their driveway meets Back Settlement Road on Thursday 10 June. From midnight, they’d been awoken to the
thud of “a tree down every ten minutes,” Andrew said. “We still don’t sleep when it’s windy.” The property is their little piece of bush sanctuary and is surrounded by the Wombat State Forest on all sides. “We were so bushfire conscious that we really didn’t think of storms,” Andrew said. It’s a familiar story for those who, like Andrew, lived through the severe weather event that he likens to “a tornado”. The Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning said the Wombat State Forest was more severely impacted by October’s storm than June’s. At least four homes were destroyed in the October storm, and at least three more were damaged but inhabitable. The stories from Grace Rankin and Andrew Phillips and others affected by the June and October storms, can be found by visiting www.moorabool.vic.gov.au and searching ‘Storm Stories and News’. You can also share your storm story by calling the Storm Team a call on (03) 5366 1323, or by emailing your story and a photo to tsass@moorabool.vic.gov.au.
Feedback and thoughts sought on waste
Council is asking residents to help shape their Waste and Resource Recovery Strategy. The Draft is out for community consultation and community feedback is sought. Moorabool Mayor Cr Tom Sullivan said as Moorabool's population grows, and the waste system in Australia transforms, “we need to find better and affordable ways to manage our resources to ensure the environment is protected for generations to come.” “The feedback from last year’s consultation has been used to inform the draft strategy, and we’d now love to hear the
thoughts of those contributors, as well as other residents throughout the Shire, on our draft strategy,” he said. This is Phase 2 of consultation. During the initial phase, Council received 700 contributions from residents, providing feedback and thoughts on current waste services, future services, transfer stations, illegal dumping, hard waste services and waste education. Feedback on the draft strategy closes 20 March 2022. It’s very easy to give your feedback, via Council’s Have Your Say portal on their website: https://moorabool. engagementhub.com.au/waste
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