";s:4:"text";s:2971:"Thanks for joining us this afternoon as heavy rain swept across the Melbourne.Storms have subsided across the state and the heaviest rainfall has passed. "We're hoping tomorrow ... 300 people want to fly back in and that'll be our first priority and we're looking at around 70 people to fly back in tomorrow," Ms Neville said.She said people who were reuniting with family members that stayed in the stranded East Gippsland coastal town were the priority.The government is also hoping to clear roads to the isolated community so people could access properties and vehicles abandoned due to the fires.The weather bureau confirmed the state was about to be hit by downpours but the rainfall would be "hit and miss" and unlikely to put out blazes. Storms could persist overnight and will not act to reduce the sticky conditions.Humidity will remain high until Saturday afternoon, but south-westerly winds will help to make conditions more bearable on Saturday morning.Storms could last until 8-9pm tonight, with the air to remain moist overnight.Cardinia, in the outer-south-east, has had 42mm of rain in the last half-hour, with 23mm in just 10 minutes.
Humidity has been high in Victoria for weeks, with north-westerly winds pushing moist air from the Tasman Sea.“There’s very active thunderstorms across the state,” said Mr Efron, “and there’s a real risk of large hail and damaging winds.”Melbourne storms: Heavy rains, power cuts as thunderstorm batters VictoriaStudents at Kangaroo Ground Primary School, near Eltham, playing in the rain after the school bell rang this afternoon.BOM's rain radar shows heavy rain north-east of Melbourne.A cyclist rides through a flooded street in Corio, near Geelong, this afternoon.Vehicles get stuck in flooded streets in Corio this afternoon.