A KALANGADOO man had to go into “survival mode” when a branch smashed the windscreen of his vehicle as he tried to avoid the tornado that struck the region on Thursday afternoon.
Robbie Stewart was travelling back to Kalangadoo in his vehicle when the severe weather event occurred and he soon found himself caught in the storm.
“I got to Waterhouse Road, it started raining sideways then lightning struck a tree when I pulled up, so I put my handbrake on and put my foot on the brake,” Mr Stewart said.
“The car started rocking side to side and … I decided to move up a bit further and all of a sudden a tree branch in front of me came crashing down and hit the front of the car.”
With the front windscreen completely smashed, Mr Stewart said he “snapped into survival mode” and grabbed anything he could to protect himself.
“I grabbed a towel from the back seat and put it up against the window to stop any debris from flying in,” he said.
While Mr Stewart escaped the severe event without injury, his car was a complete write-off.
“Unfortunately the insurance company has valued my car at $1500, so I am not going to be able to get a decent car for that amount,” he said.
A firefighting and coast guard volunteer, Mr Stewart said he now faced a difficult proposition of getting to work and other community commitments.
“There is no public transport out at Kalangadoo and I cannot really afford another vehicle at this stage, so I am not sure what I will do,” Mr Stewart said.
He questioned whether the closing of the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) station in Mount Gambier restricted the authority’s ability to predict the tornado event.
“We got a severe thunderstorm warning, but there was no tornado watch alert,” Mr Stewart said.
“More needs to be done to better prepare this area for these types of disasters because it will not be the last of these type of events.”
A bureau spokesperson said having someone at the South East weather station would have made no difference in this situation.
“Craig Marsh, who used to man the station, was not involved in forecasts or warnings of these types of severe weather events,” a BOM spokesperson said.
“We do not explicitly give live warnings for tornadoes as a bureau unless we receive a report from the public advising us of one.”
