By Angela Macdonald-Smith
Nov. 17 (Bloomberg) -- More than 230,000 homes and businesses in the southeast of Australia's Queensland state lost power after high winds, lightning strikes and driving rain cut supplies, said Energex, the region's power distributor.
The storms were the most damaging in about a quarter of a century, state-owned Energex said today in a statement on its Web site. By 4:30 a.m., power had been restored to more than 125,000 customers, while crews are working to reconnect the rest, it said.
The northwestern suburbs of the state capital of Brisbane were worst affected by yesterday's storms. Falling trees and branches ripped more than 33 kilometers (21 miles) of power lines from poles and roofing iron torn from homes was thrown into the 33,000 volt network.
``Due to the severity of the damage and debris blocking access to parts of the network some areas may be without supply until this afternoon,'' Energex said.
Power cuts occurred from the Gold Coast south of Brisbane to Gympie about 160 kilometers (104 miles) to the north, and to Ipswich in the west, Energex said.
The storms that ripped through the Brisbane area have since cleared, Weatherzone, a weather news service owned by The Weather Co., reported on its Web site. Severe thunderstorm warnings were canceled early this morning and showers and lighter rain are forecast today, it said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Angela Macdonald-Smith in Sydney at amacdonaldsm@bloomberg.net
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment