'Worked as quickly as safety allowed to clear debris': Essential Energy's tornado response

The company said crews responded quickly when customers were affected on Thursday afternoon.

"Electricity network protection equipment activated automatically, switching power off to 164 customers in Limekilns, Clear Creek, Peel and surrounding areas at 12.32pm on Thursday," community relations manager, northern, Bronya Pressler said.

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As well as bringing down powerlines and blowing roofing iron into the electricity network in Clear Creek, she said the weather event "brought a power pole down on the corner of Limekilns Road and Pyrmonts Lane".

"Crews worked as quickly as safety allowed to clear debris and carry out repairs to the network and restored power to 38 customers at 4.48pm," she said.

Due to the amount of rain that had fallen in the area in recent days, she said access to replace the power pole was very difficult and an excavator had to be brought in to assist.

"Our crews continued to work into the evening to replace the power pole and, by 8.52pm last night, power had been restored to as many customers as possible, however, three customers remained without power overnight," she said.

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She said Essential Energy crews returned today to complete repairs and restore power to one of those customers, however, due to damage to the two other premises, their power is unable to be restored.

"We encourage residents to immediately report fallen powerlines to Essential Energy on 13 20 80 or call triple-0 if the situation is life-threatening," Ms Pressler said.

She said customers are reminded to always treat powerlines as live and to stay at least eight metres away from fallen powerlines and anything in contact with them.

"We thank the community for their patience and understanding as crews worked to restore power to customers as quickly and safely as possible following the storm," she said.

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