15,000 homes still without power after storm
Thousands of residents and businesses in Victoria’s Gippsland region remain without power following a powerful storm earlier this week.
Energy company AusNet on Saturday said that about 15,000 homes remained without power after infrastructure was damaged and destroyed earlier this week.
It said that around 7000 residences were reconnected overnight and the provider was working to restore over 500 faults.
According to its outage tracker, some of the identified faults are affecting thousands of homes.
Most of the properties are expected to come online in the coming days, however some are expected to last into late next week.
“We have resources out on the field today and tomorrow attending to repair and restoration efforts,” AusNet said in a social media post.
“Please be polite and respectful when dealing with our people as they’re working as quickly and safely as possible to get your power back on.”
About half a million residents were left without electricity following Tuesday’s wild storm, and about 90 per cent were reconnected within two days.
The Victorian SES said it was still dealing with a backlog of calls for help following the storm last week.
The Australian and Victorian governments on Friday announced a relief package for people who will be without power for an extended period of time.
The governments will provide a Prolonged Power Outage Payment for residents without power for more than a week.
Affected Victorians will be given $1920 per week for up to three weeks.
