Thousands without power 24 hours after storm smashes Wagga

THOUSANDS of homes and businesses remain without power across Wagga more than 24 hours after a violent thunderstorm carved a path of destruction through the region.

Essential Energy says its crews have been working around the clock to restore power, but due to the scale of damage and the number of outages, it will take some time.

The energy company said its crews had restored power to over 52,000 customers in the past 24 hours, from Walgett in the state’s north to Bega in the south, but 10,000 homes and businesses remain offline, including over 2000 in Wagga.

“Some customers remained without power overnight due to conditions not being safe for crews,” an Essential Energy spokesperson said in a statement on Thursday morning.

“Essential Energy crews will be working to restore power as soon as it is safe and possible to do so.”

According to the energy company’s website, over 100 homes and businesses were still without power in Lake Albert and Kooringal at the time of publication (3:30pm), along with the entire suburb of North Wagga (249 customers).

The village of Downside north of Wagga was also still offline, with over 40 customers there waiting to be reconnected, while over half a dozen businesses were still blacked-out at Bomen, including the Riverina Intermodal Freight and Logistics Hub.

Meanwhile, to the east of Wagga, a further 475 customers remained without electricity across Gumly Gumly, Forest Hill, Alfredtown, Ladysmith, Oura and Borambola, 230 were still offline in the Gregadoo area.

The widespread outages are the result of extensive infrastructure damage caused by destructive thunderstorm which tore through Wagga on Wednesday afternoon.

Winds of 100km/h were recorded at Wagga Airport as the storm slammed into the city about 2pm. According to the Bureau of Meteorology, winds there were gusting at 106km/h for four minutes.

The winds flipped a light plane onto its roof at the airport, flattened road signs, brought down powerlines and uprooted countless trees right across Wagga, many of them blocking roads, crushing cars and landing on buildings.

A large gum tree toppled onto a unit block at Lake Albert, while another crashed through the roof of the old Downside Hall at Downside, 16km north of Wagga, causing extensive damage to the community building.

Stacked shipping containers were also scattered like building blocks in the wind at Bomen, while at least two empty containers were blown off a stationary train.

Downside Hall | Supplied

Image: Supplied

Image: Supplied

Image: Supplied

© The Junee Bulletin

Meanwhile, also at Bomen, four people were injured when the demountable hut they were in was thrown onto its side, while a woman was injured after being hit by falling tree branches at the RAAF base in Forest Hill.

Thankfully, all five people escaped serious injury and were taken to Wagga Base Hospital in stable conditions.

The NSW State Emergency Service received over 270 calls for help across the southern region, with local SES crews working through the night to patch up homes and clear debris and downed trees.

Over 4,700 homes and businesses lost power in and around the city during the height of the storm.

Apart from customers in Gregadoo, who were expected to have their power restored by 8pm Wednesday, Essential Energy says it is still unable to provide an estimated restoration time for the rest of Wagga.

“Our website outages page is being updated with impacted locations, estimated restoration times when known, outage cause and where challenges are being faced in restoring supply,” the spokesperson said.

“Essential Energy is on call 24/7 and, in an emergency, crews will work as quickly as safety and conditions allow to restore power to the homes, hospitals, schools, businesses and services that form part of each community that we service.”

You can monitor Essential Energy’s website for updates on power outages and estimated restoration times.

The storm also cut power to Goldenfields Water’s treatment plant at Oura, triggering emergency water restrictions for customers on the Oura Water Scheme, including those in Junee and Temora.

Restrictions included limiting showers to less than four minutes and banning the use of sprinklers, soakers, watering cans, handheld hoses, and also applied to commercial irrigation and crop spraying.

The restrictions were lifted just before 2pm on Thursday.

Goldenfields Water said they were necessary to preserve water reserves until power to their plant was restored.

“Thanks to the hard work of our team on the ground, alongside the team at Essential Energy, power has now been restored to the Oura Water Supply System,” a spokesperson for the company said in a statement.

“We are grateful to all our customers for their cooperation and support in significantly reducing their water usage in accordance with these restrictions.”

Meanwhile, residents in Brucedale, Tarcutta, Humula and Ladysmith are also being urged to preserve water while Essential Energy works to restore power.

Riverina Water says generators are operating to support supply levels in these areas, including Brucedale, however it is vital that residents limit their water usage where possible.