Western Australia has been battered by a tropical cyclone on Sunday night/Monday morning causing widespread damage. Tropical cyclone Seroja hit land around 8pm Sunday night with winds greater than 150km/h.
The storm area was over 700km long and 150km wide and caused damage to the Midwest and Wheatbelt regions.
Western Power, who maintains the electricity network across parts of Western Australia, released information at 3pm local time on the 12th April:
- Western Power teams are assessing the damages caused to the network by Tropical Cyclone Seroja via ground and air.
- Due to the extent of the storm, repair to the network may take a number of days, although they are working to ensure the community will have access to power as soon as possible.
- Approximately 30,000 customers remain without power across the region.
- Customers relying on life-support equipment will need to ensure they follow any back up plan they have in place.
- Planned outage work within the region has been cancelled, while consideration has been placed on any outage work outside the region to see if it can be redirected to the affected areas.
- The primary aim of Western Power is to ensure any hazards are made safe as they work to restore the network.
- Western Power will continue to provide updates via their website, social media and radio.
- They have requested that if people see any damaged or downed powerlines, to remain at least 8 metres away and to report it to Western Power on 13 13 51.