2003 Bendigo tornado


The 2003 Bendigo tornado was an F2 tornado which hit the city of Bendigo, Victoria, Australia about 6.30 pm on 18 May 2003. Wind speeds ranged from 130 km/h to 150 km/h at the core of the storm.
The city of Bendigo is located in Victoria, a southeastern state in Australia. This southeastern region of Australia has seen tornadoes in the past, but, according to the Bureau of Meteorology, the tornado was an unusual occurrence for central Victoria and the last similar event occurred in Wonthaggi in 1993.

Impacts and Casualties

The tornado traveled seven kilometers with a 500 meter wide path in less than ten minutes. The main areas hit were the city's northern suburbs of Eaglehawk and California Gully which had severe damage and power outages. Overall, no one was injured, but the tornado left eight homes destroyed, 44 homes with serious damages, trees torn up, and power was lost in up to 18000 homes. Also, the tornado disrupted society as a whole with traffic disruption on the Loddon Valley Highway and suspension of certain V/Line train lines. The damages were estimated to cost up to millions of dollars.
There was flash flooding and minor damage across other suburbs of the city and other parts of central Victoria experienced power outages.

Aftermath

Emergency efforts quickly started to get the area safe and electricity back into homes. Victims were also given assistance, including: