POWERING AHEAD: Efforts to restore electricity stepped up
POWER RESTORATION
The effort to restore power to thousands of homes and businesses in Douglas has been stepped up today – with Ergon Energy saying it has moved 100 extra personnel into the area from other parts of Queensland to work on the huge task.
Cyclone Jasper caused widespread damage to the electricity network in many areas of the far north, and across the Shire as of this morning, there were still at least 6,000 customers without power.
Ergon said it has updated the estimated restoration time for outages on its Outage Finder – and that its crews are continuing to assess the damage, repair the network and safely reconnect customers across the cyclone zone.
“While our aim is to have network supply available to 80 per cent of impacted customers by tomorrow (Saturday) night and all customers restored by next Tuesday night where safe to do so, this may be further impacted by continued rain and additional damage to our network,” Paul Jordon, Ergon’s Chief Operating Officer said.
“Flooding has cut access to some damage sites and severe weather will continue to pose challenges for our crews, who are working hard in tough conditions to get the power back on to their communities as soon as practically possible,” Mr Jordon said.
Flood watch in Daintree and other areas
Meanwhile, the communities along the Daintree River are on flood alert, after recording between 500mm and 800mm of rainfall fell across the Daintree and Mossman catchments since Cyclone Jasper started making impact in the region on Wednesday morning.
The Daintree River at Daintree Village is currently at around 7.65 metres and rising with moderate flooding – and by tonight, could reach nine metres if the rain continues in the area.
Daintree Village is cut off by flooding and many are still without power, prompting one local business to offer the local community and anyone stuck in the area, a possible vital service: “Do you need to phone friends or relatives? Come to the servo (only if it is safe to do so!) And use our WIFI CALLING... it's working most of the time.”
At the nearby Daintree Village Hotel, the new managers who had planned to open today, had a major disappointment when their emergency generator failed to respond to full power, forcing them to stay closed until an electrician can get there.
The State Emergency Service and other responders will also be keeping an eye on the level of the Mossman River, which has been steadily rising again with the rain left in Jasper’s wake.
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