Hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses in Victoria are without power after wild storms hit the state, knocking down power lines, after a day of scorching temperatures.
Some of the worst affected areas included eastern and south eastern suburbs of the city, like Waverley, Burwood East, Vermont South and Bentleigh.
At its peak, an estimated 500,000 properties lost power as towers collapsed in heat, transmission lines tripped and multiple generators disconnected from the grid.
“These power outages are due to storm activity, strong winds and lightning causing damage to the electricity network,” the Australian Energy Market Operator said in a statement late on Tuesday.
Wind gusts of more than 120km/h struck six major transmission towers near Geelong while extreme heat knocked the state’s largest electricity plant off-line.
Authorities warned it could take days to address high voltage transmission issues still affecting more than 200,000 homes.
Traffic lights have also been impacted and there’s a likelihood some schools may have to close on Wednesday.
As of 6am Wednesday, the Victorian State Emergency Service had received more than 2750 calls for help since midday on Tuesday.
Some 1750 calls have now been cleared and authorities are working through the other 1000.
Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neill, a Victorian, said it was surprising so many homes lost power.
“There’s some really important questions to ask and answer here about how it’s possible that a country like Australia can lose power for 500,000 people because of a storm,” she told Seven’s Sunrise program on Wednesday.
“But I do think those questions are for later.
“Our hearts and our actions and thoughts have to be with those families that are really suffering.”
Tuesday was a scorcher for multiple states, but Victoria suffered the worst with temperatures surpassing 40C in some parts of the state.
“It’s been hot, sizzling,” the Bureau of Meterology’s Kevin Parkyn said.
“We’ve seen 41.7C at Walpeup, 41.4C at Hopetoun there up in the northwest of the state.
“Incredibly 41C at Avalon there ahead of the wind change and the temperature dropped by about 15 degrees down to 26C in 15 minutes.”
A catastrophic fire danger rating was declared for some parts of the state on Tuesday, the first since the deadly Black Summer of 2019-20.
Source Agencies
