The story also wreaked havoc along several towns. Residents have expressed their terror as the tornado has devastated homes and businesses.
Dawn Leahy, a fish-and-chip shop owner, told The Age, “It was like a bomb went off. I was holding on to the front door of my shop watching things fly past.”
There has also been countless damage to property. Brian Keenan, the mayor of Moira Shire, said that several houses at Bundalong, home to about 300 people, were completely destroyed.
Keenan told AAP that he witnessed trees being ripped from the ground.
“How there wasn’t lives lost is beyond me,” he said.
Senior forecaster for the Bureau of Meteorology, Terry Ryan, said the tornado had initially been assessed as between F1 and F2 on the scale for tornado strength, meaning they had wind speeds between 117 and 253 kilometres an hour and a path of destruction between 150 and 250 metres.
Some witnesses reported seeing two tornadoes on Thursday.
The tornado cause fierce storms, which hit the Murray River towns of Bundalong, Yarrawonga, Mulwala, Rutherglen, Koonoomoo and Cobram.
According to Max Steward, a manager at the Barooga Post Office, the storm lasted only five minutes but ripped off the back verandah off and blew it about 30 metres into the street. He noted that for such a short storm, it caused an incredible amount of damage.
“You can look out our window here and see the bush between here and Cobram, and it’s just like a lawnmower has gone across the top of the trees – trees that were 60 foot high, or they were. Unbelievable, it was.”
Images via Associated Press
