Emergency services say it’s a miracle more people weren’t injured when wild weather battered parts of the state on Wednesday night.

North-east Victoria was hardest hit, with residents describing the storm as being like a tornado passing through, leaving a trail of destruction.

Tawonga resident Barbara Talbot said it was “frightening”.

“You could hear it coming right through the valley, the wind the rain … you could just hear the trees cracking,” she said. 

Just west of Tawonga in the popular tourist town of Bright, four people were injured when a large tree fell at the Freeburgh Caravan Park, where about 300 people were camping at the time.

“A number of limbs had fallen across the road between two camp sites including a caravan and a number of vehicles,” Bright SES deputy controller Marcus Warner said.

One of the people, a man in his 40’s, was trapped under the tree and had to be carefully rescued by emergency service personnel.

Mr Warner said it took around two hours to free the man.

“We started work on de-limbing the basic parts of the tree and some of our members, including members of the CFA, made an approach into the casualty (the man) to try and start some basic first aid,” he said.

The man was taken to hospital before being flown to Melbourne in a serious condition.

Campsites and accommodation around the area are typically at capacity at this time of year, with thousands flocking to the region to enjoy its summer offerings.

“It’s a bit of a miracle that we’re actually only dealing with four casualties, one that was unfortunately seriously injured, but it could have been a lot worse,” Mr Warner said.

He said the damage across the Kiewa Valley was “extensive”.

“When we left Bright, it’s approximately a 12-kilometre drive to where the casualties were injured, the amount of devastation along the way was quite significant,” he said.

“We’re talking hundreds of trees down across a number of major roads.”

Several roads are expected to remain closed for some time as a result of both power lines and trees down.

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Campers at Tawonga Caravan Park were lucky to escape injury after several large trees came down close to tents and cars. 

Jarrod Hills was with his family by the river at the time.

The sought shelter near a barbecue area after winds started to pick up.  

“The kids were a little bit scared by it,” he said.

“You could see basically cyclone winds and I saw a heap of branches fall just in our lane alone.” 

A caravan and a car were damaged when a tree fell nearby. 

“You heard lightening and then it was basically a few seconds later you heard the big crumble and tumble,” Mr Hills said. 

He said a family were in the caravan at the time, escaping with only a small cut. 

“The daughter got a bit of a cut on her head but that was it. They were able to crawl out of the door, luckily enough.” 

The clean up is expected to continue for several days. 

More storms to come

According to the Bureau of Meteorology, the strongest wind gusts were recorded at Mangalore, about 130 kilometres north of Melbourne.

Wind gusts reached 109 kilometres an hour there just before 9:30pm.

The SES said it responded to about 300 requests for assistance across the state in a 24-hour period.

The strong damaging winds follow heavy rainfall earlier in the week, which saw requests for sandbagging. 

The Bureau of Meteorology’s Angus Hines said there was a reprieve in conditions forecast during the next few days, but more stormy weather was expected. 

“Through Sunday we’re tracking a band of storms moving in from the north-west, that means moving from South Australia to Victoria,” he said. 

“This could be a fairly significant weather system on Sunday and Monday.”