THOUSANDS of homes could be without power until at least Wednesday, Power and Water Corporation has warned.
General manager Malcolm Conway said 29,500 residences were cut off from power on Saturday after Cyclone Marcus wrecked havoc on the Greater Darwin area.
Of that number, 11,203 had been restored by 6pm last night and an estimated 18,000 were still without power.
The first major priority was Royal Darwin Hospital, Darwin Airport and then we worked on other medical areas, areas that provide water pumping around and house critical people, Mr Conway said. Crews from Alice Springs and Katherine have travelled to Darwin to help get as many people back on the grid as possible. Yesterday, about 30 crews were out and 10 working internally to restore power.
Weve got a number of lights out on the Stuart Hwy and Tiger Brennan Rd that poses a safety risk, so thats one of those priorities its a risk to all road users, Mr Conway said. NT Police gave Power and Water permission to start fixing broken powerlines about 2pm Saturday when the major threats started to subside.
We were allowed to mobilise at 2pm and it was probably half an hour over that the survey team were out at about 2.30pm, Mr Conway said.
Between 2.30-3pm, additional teams were hitting the road, working to restore power. Initially we are getting to places we can get to there are some areas we havent been able to get to because they haven’t been cleared yet.
It could be later than Wednesday when we get the last customers on. Telstra estimates there is a disruption to about 2000 fixed-line services in Darwin and surrounding areas. ADSL and mobiles services are also affected across a number of areas including Berry Springs, Dundee Beach, Wagait Beach, Howard Springs, Karama, Parap and Moil.
Telstra Area general manager for the NT Nic Danks said in cyclone-affected areas people should use their mobiles for urgent calls only, keep conversation brief and avoid non-essential internet use.
We will be working as quickly as possible to restore services he said.
Cool Guy in Perth 
Leave a comment