AS DERRINALLUM wildlife carer Louise Molesworth marvelled at the golf ball-sized hail stones that hit the state's south-east on Sunday afternoon, little did she know she would experience the same thing just hours later.
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The self-proclaimed "born, bred and raised" Derrinallum local said she had never seen a storm as fierce as the one that battered the town on Sunday night.
"We got hit with a hail storm that was unprecedented in our history," she said.
"It surrounded the whole town and didn't hit anywhere else.
"I was at home and had just been talking about how Seaford and Frankston were hit and how it was really rotten luck.
"Next thing I'm standing at the window filming this massive hail storm - the gutters filled up with hail stones and all the water poured into the lounge.
"There was water pouring in through the kitchen cupboard onto the floor. There was a lake in the lounge room on my carpet."
She said the panic set in when the water stared coming in through the ceiling lights.
"The storm finished and then we had this smell come through the house like it was on fire," she said.
"We had the CFA and SES here and they had to cut big holes in the ceiling to find out what was going on.
"It was just horrendous."
The 65-year-old is also a wildlife carer and was inundated with animals injured in the storm.
"We had five baby galahs bought to us last night and we were grabbing cages, they were all wet and one had wounds all over its body.
"It's just never-ending. It's like in the fire areas, you end up with all these gorgeous baby animals and you have to rethink everything."
Ms Molesworth said there wasn't a home or business in the town that wasn't affected by the storm.
"The whole town looked like a skating rink, it was all white. I'm part of the bowls club and the green was all white, the carpet in the bowling club is all wet and all games have been cancelled for the next couple of weeks because it's such a mess up there.
"The post office was hit, part of the supermarket roof caved in - it hit everybody.
"It's been really hard, we're not a big town, it hit us hard."
Ms Molesworth was born two doors up from the home she lives in now, which she inherited from her father when he passed away.
"It was easily 62 years ago when we moved down from where I was born," she said.
"It's been in the family for a long time."
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