7 December 2007

Power and Water crews work to repair storm damage in Darwin area.

On Wednesday night (December 5) the Darwin region experienced its first severe thunderstorm for the wet season and significant damage to power supply was caused by trees falling on power lines and direct lightning strikes.  Power and Water crews worked from before midnight and all through the next day, restoring major feeder lines and supply to dozens of individual houses.

In most cases, the time that customers were without power varied from less than one minute (in cases where the feeder was tripped and reset automatically), to three hours where area supply power lines had been brought down.

Power and Water prioritise crews to repair major feeder lines first to ensure that the most number of customers have power restored in the shortest time. However, crews were still working throughout that day to repair and restore power to some individual houses across Darwin suburbs and outer regions such as Darwin River and Bees Creek.

Again, Power and Water stress the importance of clearing trees to three metres away from power lines – those near your boundary and those that run from the main power line across your property, to your house.  Extreme care should be taken and residents should not trim them themselves, but call Power and Water on 1800 245 092