WIND winds of up to 72km/h brought down trees across Bathurst, with State Emergency Service (SES) crews tasked out across the city.
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A severe weather warning was issued on Monday afternoon and what followed was strong wind gusts and rain in the evening.
SES Central West region controller Craig Ronan said volunteers were tasked to six separate call outs for trees down across the city, as well as a leaking roof in a Perthville home.
Meanwhile, 800 homes and businesses across the Bathurst region lost power in Monday night’s storm.
“The storm caused a large number of faults, including blown fuses, faulty transformers and a broken cross-arm, across a wide area,” Essential Energy’s David Crough said.
He said the outage was caused by either a lightning strike or debris impacting the electricity network during the storm.
By mid Tuesday afternoon just nine customers remained without power.
Essential Energy’s response
STORM causes power outages Essential Energy crews were kept busy in the wider Bathurst, Blayney, Millthorpe and Orange areas on Tuesday after early morning storms caused unplanned power outages for more 800 homes and businesses.
Manager community relations Northern, David Crough, said Essential Energy’s crews worked as quickly as safety allowed to restore power for customers.
“The storm caused a large number of faults, including blown fuses, faulty transformers and a broken cross-arm, across a wide area,” he said.
Around 600 homes and businesses in Brewongle, O’Connell and surrounding rural areas east of Bathurst were affected by the largest unplanned power outage at 2.20am on Tuesday.
“To ensure the safety of the public and their property, the electricity network automatically switched the main powerline to the Brewongle and O’Connell areas off, after sensing a problem,” Mr Crough said.
“After ensuring it was safe to do so, power was restored to the area in 40 minutes.”
It is believed the unplanned power outage was caused by either a lightning strike or debris, such as a tree branch, impacting the electricity network during the storm.
To ensure the safety of the public and their property, the electricity network automatically switched the main powerline to the Brewongle and O’Connell areas off, after sensing a problem.
- Essential Energy's David Crough
“The largest amount of damage occurred in the Blayney and Millthorpe areas and extra crews and equipment from Bathurst, Canowindra, Molong and Orange assisted Blayney crews to complete repairs and restore power as quickly as possible for customers affected in that area,” Mr Crough said.
By 9.40am on Tuesday the number of households and businesses affected by an unplanned power outage had been reduced to 153, then to 47 by midday and to nine by 3.30pm on Tuesday.
“Crews hope to be able to restore power to all customers affected initially or subsequently from the storm by late Tuesday afternoon,” Mr Crough said.
Essential Energy reminds the public to report fallen or damaged powerlines immediately by calling 13 20 80 and to stay at least eight metres away from the line and anything in contact with it.
“We apologise for any inconvenience caused and thank customers for their understanding as we worked to restore power after the storm,” Mr Crough said.