Add Category
Small business owners in South West WA say it could take months to repair damage caused by a ferocious storm at the weekend.
Emergency services received more than 100 calls for help after a storm hit parts of Bunbury, about 170 kilometres south of Perth, and surrounds on Saturday night.
Owy's Garden and Nursery manager David Taylor, whose parents started the business more than 30 years ago, was in the crosshairs.
"Everything just went quiet for a little bit and the next thing this roar started happening," he said.
"I looked out the window, started seeing stuff flying around, and I was like, 'here we go'."
Mr Taylor said the damage was even worse than he had expected.
"It would be over a million dollars ... some of the plants we've got here are nowhere else in WA," he said.
"The worst thing is we had to get rid of our insurance about three years ago because Dad had bowel cancer and the cost of living was just getting too much."
Mr Taylor said the nursery would likely have been forced to close for good were it not for the community's support and donations.
"What the community has done for us, everyone has got good hearts, it's unbelievable," he said.
Lesley Blight drove down from Perth with her husband to lend a hand.
"Community is important because of situations like this," she said.
"When there's a disaster we all pull through."
Government considers assistance
Deborah Males, who runs a bed and breakfast in East Bunbury, was in Perth celebrating her birthday when she heard the storm had hit her place.
She said at the time she was just relieved to learn the guests who had been staying at The Boathouse were not hurt.
It was only when she returned home that she realised the full scale of the destruction and the impact to her business.
"Everywhere I look I find more damage so I couldn't even imagine what it's going to cost," she said.
Ms Males said it would take at least two months to get back up and running again and that she would be out of pocket about $1,000 per week for lost bookings.
The state government is still considering whether or not to provide financial assistance to those impacted by the storm.
Earlier this month, it offered Bunbury residents affected by a tornado up to $4,000.
Ms Males said she would be grateful for any support.
"Normally I'm a fiercely independent woman, but at this point I'm quite shattered," she said.
In the meantime, Ms Males said she had been overwhelmed by the friends, family, neighbours and guests who had been helping her clean up.
DFES warns more wild weather to come
Saturday night's extreme weather event came just a few weeks after a tornado ripped through Bunbury.
It damaged about 100 homes in and around the primarily residential suburb of Withers.
The Department of Fire and Emergency Services (DFES) said last weekend's storm appeared to have had a bigger impact on businesses.
"Where the previous event was heavily within a residential area, we've seen more sort of commercial industrial property damage with this event," district officer Nathan Hall said.
He said there had been about 170 requests for assistance with clean-ups since the storm, and that emergency services teams had already attended about 130 of them.
"As people return home from their long weekend holidays, there is a possibility that people will come across damage they weren't expecting to their properties, and they may need assistance with that," Mr Hall said.
He said the department hoped to get the majority of works completed before a storm front reached Bunbury later this week — something DFES was urging businesses and residents to prepare their properties for.