Family mourns victim of 'thunderstorm asthma'

Twenty-year-old Hope Carnevali was one of the victims of 'thunderstorm asthma' (Newshub)
Twenty-year-old Hope Carnevali was one of the victims of 'thunderstorm asthma' (Newshub)

The family of an asthma sufferer who died during a rare weather phenomenon in Melbourne are shocked at what happened.

 Twenty-year-old law student and life-long asthma sufferer Hope Carnevali was one of three people who died during a mass occurrence of thunderstorm asthma.

She had been waiting more than 30 minutes for an ambulance.

"Knowing if they had got there a little bit earlier that the situation might be different is very hard to deal with," said her aunt Melissa Carnevali. 

Eighteen-year-old Omar Moujalled also didn't make it to hospital.

Officials say the weather event put more strain on the health system than a mass casualty terror attack.

Two thousand people experienced breathing difficulties and ambulance Victoria received six times the normal number of calls.

Newshub.