Houses ‘completely smashed’, Clare O’Neil says
Home affairs minister Clare O’Neil has posted a video from Parliament House for her constituents in Hotham, commenting on the disastrous storms yesterday.
She said she had just spoken with her family in Victoria, who said there were houses in their street that have “been completely smashed with trees”, and cars destroyed in the wild weather.
O’Neil said she was doing “everything [she] can” to ensure there is adequate federal support for the cleanup efforts.
Our state is grappling with severe weather impacts right now, including Melbourne’s south east on the back of that terrible storm.
I will keep you updated on federal recovery support and please stay safe everyone. pic.twitter.com/tMB01UeRIS
— Clare O’Neil MP (@ClareONeilMP) February 13, 2024
Key events
Optus update
Optus says 225 of its mobile sites are without power right now.
Its general manager for Victoria, Jayson Grool, said Optus was monitoring the network and working with mains power authority to assess the deployment of generators to impacted sites:
A SatCat is being deployed to Phillip Island today.
In the instance of an emergency, customers should still attempt to dial Triple Zero.
We will continue to monitor power outages and deploy resources where necessary, and we will provide regular updates as they come to hand.
Victorian premier Jacinta Allan is due to address the media very shortly on the state’s disastrous storms, bushfires and the widespread power outages.
Emergency Services minister Jaclyn Symes, energy and resources minister Lily D’Ambrosio and the emergency management commissioner Rick Nugent are also expected to speak.
We’ll bring you the key updates here on the blog.
All today’s news
We will continue to bring you the latest news around Victoria’s storm cleanup and outages but will also start bringing you today’s news more broadly.
Amanda Meade is watching developments at the federal court, where a senior lawyer for Network Ten who approved Lisa Wilkinson’s Logies speech is giving evidence.
You can watch that live here.
Outage update
Aemo has released another update on the restoration of Victoria’s electricity network.
As at 10am AEDT, around 220,000 homes and businesses were still without power. As mentioned previously, Aemo is flagging it could take “days it not weeks” to restore electricity to all of those impacted.
Here is a breakdown of the outages by distribution provider:
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AusNet: 189,794 without power. This covers outer east and outer northern Melbourne, and eastern and north-eastern Victoria
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CitiPower: 129 without power in the Melbourne CBD and inner suburbs
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Jemena: four without power in northwest Melbourne
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Powercor Australia: 9,958 without power in the outer western suburbs of Melbourne, and central and western Victoria
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United Energy: 16,289 without power in southeast Melbourne and the Mornington Peninsula
CFA firefighters trapped by fire at Pomonal suffer minor burns
In case you missed it: five country firefighters suffered minor injuries after their truck was involved in a burnover at a fireground at Pomonal last night.
Chris Hardman, chief of Forest Fire Management Victoria, told ABC News the firefighters had been pre-positioned in the town and tasked with protecting homes and critical infrastructure:
When the wind change came through, the fire moved very rapidly into Pomonal and those firefighters were caught between the firefront and the work they were doing in protecting communities.
This morning Country Fire Authority chief officer Jason Heffernan said the crew were OK, aside from some minor burns. He told ABC News Breakfast:
At the peak of the fire operations yesterday in Pomonal, a CFA crew found themselves entrapped by fire. Thankfully, they are highly trained and highly skilled. We practise for this situation, in addition to our trucks being equipped to activate crew protection.
They managed to put their training into action and, despite receiving minor burns from cinders, they are OK. Certainly a close call for the CFA crew that got entrapped.
– with AAP
Thousands call SES for help
The Victorian state emergency service says it has now received 3,040 calls for assistance since midday yesterday.
It has urged callers to “please be patient” when calling for assistance and waiting for volunteers to respond:
Our volunteers are clearing all jobs as quickly as possible. There are also a significant number of power outages statewide.
The busiest volunteer units have included Monash, responding to 501 jobs, as well as Emerald (206) and the Greater Dandenong (172) units.
Transmission towers felled at Anakie
Here are some photos of those transmission lines that collapsed at Anakie yesterday afternoon due to the wild weather:
‘There’s still a lot to do,’ Telstra says
Telstra has provided an update on the impacts to mobile connectivity after yesterday’s disastrous storms across Victoria.
Regional general manager Steve Tinker said a number of sites had been brought back online overnight and this morning but “there’s still a lot to do”:
Many of our network sites have back-up power that kept services in many areas running after the storms hit, but they can’t last for extended power outages.
We have teams on the ground across the state and we’re working with power authorities and emergency services to access and restore power to affected sites
We know how important it is to stay in touch with loved ones during times like this and we are working to get everything back online as quickly as possible where it’s safe for our technicians to do so.
Here are the latest stats from Telstra on its restoration progress:
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263 mobile sites restored since yesterday’s storms
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223 mobile sites now disrupted
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4,831 landline phone services disrupted
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22 ADSL services disrupted
We have also contacted Optus for an update.
Latest update
The Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action has issued a new statement on the widespread power outages affecting Victoria.
Here is the key information from that:
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As at 9am, about 250,000 homes and businesses are still without power
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The majority are in Ausnet’s distribution area, affecting more than 220,000 customers
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Vegetation clearing and repairs to damaged powerlines and poles is continuing, but “given the extent” of the damage it could take “days, if not weeks” to restore power to all those impacted
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Several mobile phone towers have been impacted in the storms and these areas are being prioritised for restoration
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One of four Loy Yang A power station units is now operational
Houses ‘completely smashed’, Clare O’Neil says
Home affairs minister Clare O’Neil has posted a video from Parliament House for her constituents in Hotham, commenting on the disastrous storms yesterday.
She said she had just spoken with her family in Victoria, who said there were houses in their street that have “been completely smashed with trees”, and cars destroyed in the wild weather.
O’Neil said she was doing “everything [she] can” to ensure there is adequate federal support for the cleanup efforts.
Our state is grappling with severe weather impacts right now, including Melbourne’s south east on the back of that terrible storm.
I will keep you updated on federal recovery support and please stay safe everyone. pic.twitter.com/tMB01UeRIS
— Clare O’Neil MP (@ClareONeilMP) February 13, 2024
Wantirna without power and mobile coverage
A caller to 3AW radio from Wantirna said it had been without electricity since 2pm yesterday, and there was no mobile phone connectivity.
He said the suburb appeared to be an “epicentre” of lost connection:
We’ve got nothing.
According to Optus, one of its mobile towers “isn’t working” in the Wantirna area. And according to Telstra’s outage map, there are 4G and 5G outages in the area.
Calla Wahlquist
Schools near fire closed today
Three primary school campuses near an out-of-control fire that started at Newtown, west of Ballarat, yesterday have been closed to students today.
The Scarsdale, Smythesdale and Ross Creek campuses of the Woady Yaloak primary school will be closed on Wednesday, principal Corey Pohlner told parents and carers last night. The Snake Valley campus will remain open.
The fire started at Newtown and spread into the Ross Creek state forest. It’s now listed as an advice level, meaning there is no current threat to communities or properties.
SES crews assessing Pomonal fire
James Todd from the SES control centre just provided an update to 3AW radio.
He said the service had now received more than 3,000 calls for assistance as people begin to wake up and assess the damage to their properties.
He said it “could be weeks for some areas” before power is reconnected:
Because of the widespread impact on the electricity network including some of those high-voltage powers coming down … it could be some time before some parts of the state are connected again … It could be weeks for some areas.
Todd said he didn’t know the specifics about impacts to mobile phone connectivity but “can only assume the towers themselves have been impacted”.
Like others have said today he was aware of reported house losses in the Pomonal area but said there weren’t any figures yet:
This morning there are crews on the ground, as well as fighting the fire there will be other agency folk assessing the impacts.
CFA on fire danger
A moderate fire danger rating is in place for all of Victoria today, except for the Wimmera region, which has a high fire danger rating.
According to the CFA there are no total fire bans in place today.
Outages ‘could last weeks’
Let’s revisit a statement from the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action.
Last night the department said hundreds of power poles and lines were down across the state, and the wild weather collapsed six transmission powers near Anakie yesterday afternoon.
The Loy Yang A power station also tripped and was disconnected from the grid, leading to Aemo enacting load shedding to keep the power system secure.
Load shedding distributes demand for electrical power across multiple power sources. This was cancelled “after a short period”, the department said, and all 90,000 customers impacted by this have their power restored.
The department said last night:
The Loy Yang A power station is currently in the process of being reconnected to the grid … Crews are actively working to restore power to these impacted areas. However, given the extent of the widespread damage, it may take days if not weeks to restore electricity to all of those impacted.
Mobile services out on Phillip Island
A caller to 3AW radio from Phillip Island said the island was without mobile phone connectivity after yesterday’s disastrous weather.
According to the Optus network status map, an Optus mobile tower in the area of Phillip Island “isn’t working”:
Severe weather conditions are impacting this area, your mobile & nbn service may be interrupted during this time. Once the severe weather has passed, we’ll work on getting the network up and running again. We’ll let you know when everything is back in working order.
According to Telstra, it also has an unplanned service interruption in the area:
Our technicians are investigating the cause of a network issue that is affecting the 4G network in your area. Check back for further updates as we work to get your service back online.
School closures
A number of schools across Victoria are closed today amid the power outages, including:
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John Monash science school, Clayton
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Oakleigh South secondary college
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East Loddon P-12 college
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Lockwood primary school
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Lockwood South primary school
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Halls Gap primary school
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Pomonal primary school
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Woady Yaloak primary school – Smythesdale campus
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Woady Yaloak primary school – Scarsdale campus
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Woady Yaloak primary school – Ross Creek campus
A number of early-learning centres are also closed across the state. You can view the full list here.
It says school closures may be the result of “several factors including emergencies, bushfire preparedness, construction or other factors, such as insufficient demand or staff shortages”