Cyclone Helen and Monica

Cyclone Helen 2008 – Urban and Rural Impact

Tree on powerline In the early hours of 5 January 2008, Cyclone Helen, a Category 2 cyclone, passed close to Darwin and nearby rural areas.

Despite not tracking directly over Darwin, ‘Helen’ caused substantial damage to our suburbs, including significant disruption to the delivery of power, water and sewerage services.

In almost every instance damage to the power and water services was caused by falling trees and was not a failure of the power and water systems themselves.

At the time of the ‘all clear’ at 6.00am, more than 15,000 homes and businesses were without power. Damage to the power network included broken high voltage and low voltage conductors, broken or twisted cross arms, bent and twisted power poles, and some streetlight damage.

Water and sewerage services sustained less damage, again mostly caused by trees falling on services, or uprooting services.

Power and Water’s Response

At the ‘all clear’ Power and Water crews were out on the roads assessing damage and prioritising restoration.
The most important priorities were to repair and restore major feeders safely and not endanger the public by energising fallen power lines and house services.
By late in the afternoon, electricity supply as restored to approx. 12,000 customers.
By the next afternoon less than 560 properties had no power, predominantly in rural areas, which in some cases were inaccessible due to flooding. Others were individual properties with damage to the service connection to their home.
Standby generators were used at sewerage and water pumping stations affected by power outages, and in some cases sewage pump-out trucks were mobilised to ensure sewage overflows did not occur.
Power and Water crews worked 12 hour shifts, day and night, over four days to restore power and water supplies as quickly as possible.
Call Centre staff were called in to Darwin and Alice Springs centres over the weekend to take more than 3,000 customer calls in the first 48 hours.
Regular updates were given to the community on the status of restoration via print, radio and TV.

Cyclone Monica 2006 – Remote Area Impact

On 24 April 2006, Cyclone Monica moved from the Queensland east coast into the Territory affecting the small islands north of the Arnhem Land coast as a Category 5 cyclone. It then made landfall on the northwest Arnhem Land coast, approx. 35 km west of Maningrida and cut a swath of damage through a number of remote communities including: Yirrkala, Mangarr, Galiwinku, Elcho Island, Ramingining, Ngangalala, Yathalamarra and Millingimbi.

A small but intense cyclone, it also caused significant damage to the Arnhem Land communities of Oenpelli and Maningrida before striking the township of Jabiru.

The majority of damage was to power poles and powerlines. Power in remote areas is especially crucial as it often runs the bores for water and even pumps to refuel aircraft which are needed to get essential supplies into these areas.

In most remote communities Power and Water’s local representative is an Essential Services Operator, or ESO. The Power and Water Corporation’s Remote Operations staff worked with the ESOs and contractors to restore essential services.

Power and Water’s Response

In the early hours of Tuesday 25 April, the town of Jabiru had no power but by 10.30am power had been restored to most of the town.
Power and Water flew a crew to the town and two additional crews drove there to assist with completing the recovery process.
By Wednesday a detailed inspection of the network had been undertaken.
A tree trimming program in the township prevented more extensive damage to the network.
In remote areas damage was repaired and power restored within a day.
In Maningrida four Power and Water staff flew to the community to assist with repairs along with electrical contractors.