By Mikayla van Loon
It’s a Wednesday evening. The power keeps going on and off. It’s winter, so the house starts to become cold.
You go to the kitchen when there’s a long break in the power going on and off. Boil the kettle and make a cup of tea, before snuggling under a blanket in the lounge room.
“The next moment above me in my lounge, I heard the most almighty breaking, smashing and part of this massive big branch, like you wouldn’t believe, nearly a whole tree came down through my ceiling, through the tiles of the lounge room and was probably about a metre off the floor in the lounge,” Mount Evelyn resident Marlene Smith said.
“And then another big part of this massive tree hit the dining room behind me and my decking. It was like a whirlwind, it certainly was like a whirlwind in the lounge.
“It was so dark and cold and wet and the sound of it, I’ll never forget that sound and the coldness. Being on my own, I was just terrified. I just stood there in shock. I’d never experienced anything like it.”
This is Marlene’s memory of 9 June, an evening that still rattles her almost a year later and probably always will.
Living alone, Marlene said when panic set in, she didn’t know what to do and having called Triple Zero multiple times without getting through, her first thought was ‘it’s not safe in the house’.
“I went with my phone into the carport and hopped in my car and stayed there. What I can remember too was the crashing of the trees around me,” she said.
Attempting to call her son who lives in Mooroolbark, Marlene knew trees and power poles had fallen all along her street and beyond just by the noise.
“For my son to get to my place from Mooroolbark, he had to chainsaw parts of trees down on the road to get to my place in Mount Evelyn. He managed to get there and I was just so relieved.”
“He’s probably one of the bravest men I’ve ever come across, even though he’s my son, to try and get up there to stop some of the water coming into my home which was useless really because he tried but it was just too dangerous for him.”
Marlene slept in her car that first night.
From there, she said her insurance company initially “made it very difficult for me”, it was only after her son contacted the ombudsman that she was finally given temporary accommodation in Ferntree Gully.
She has since been moved around three or four times to various temporary accommodation places until her house is rebuilt, something that is roughly still four or five months away from being complete.
“One evening you’re sitting there the next moment you’ve moved out of your home and I won’t be back there for another four or so months if I’m lucky.
“Nothing’s in the house. It’s just been demolished and what was there has had to be removed because of the water damage and the mould and the destruction from the roof collapsing.”
Able to save some personal items and clothing, Marlene said at least 60 per cent of her belongings and furniture were ruined by the storms.
Although essentially starting from scratch, Marlene said she has to remain positive about moving back into her home, joking that perhaps it may be ready by 2024.
“We’ve just got to keep our hopes up and at the end of the day, we will eventually move back to our homes.
“It has been a struggle. It was survival that night but now it’s a struggle, just day to day trying to cope with everything. It’s just so overwhelming.”
Marlene remains wary of loud wind and trees, finding it hard to sleep sometimes when there’s a storm.
But even still, with those few dangerous trees now removed from her property, she said the final piece of the puzzle is moving back into her house.
“It was my safe haven until that night…I can’t wait to move back into my lovely little home. I took a lot of pride in it but the main thing is that I wasn’t severely hurt and nobody else was either.”
