Hundreds of thousands of people are still without power after destructive storms swept through Victoria yesterday. Damaging winds brought down trees and power lines leaving more than half a million properties without electricity at the height of the storm only about 50 per cent of those homes have had power restored.
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TVTranscript
00:00 Well this catastrophic weather event has caused havoc across Victoria.
00:05 We've really seen a double disaster here.
00:07 We've had fires destroy homes and catastrophic weather caused destruction across the state.
00:14 Tragically there's been a 50-year-old dairy farmer killed in these storms in Mirrooroo
00:19 North in South Gippsland.
00:21 Police are investigating what exactly caused his death but believe he was hit by falling
00:26 debris while he was on his tractor in these storms.
00:29 Now Emergency Management Commissioner Rick Nugent says these are the most destructive
00:33 conditions we've seen since Black Saturday.
00:36 We've had 150 kilometres winds lash the state.
00:41 We've had thousands of trees being brought down on power lines and roads.
00:46 Currently there are still more than 200,000 homes without power.
00:50 The worst part of the state affected is in the east.
00:54 Power winds yesterday brought down transmission lines near Geelong and those transmission
00:59 lines being brought down tripped the state's biggest power station in Loyang A.
01:05 Now at the peak of this emergency yesterday half a million Victorian homes were without
01:10 power.
01:11 The Australian Energy Market Operator says that 50% of those homes have been brought
01:15 back on and connected to the grid.
01:17 But we do expect a number of homes to be brought back on within the next 36 hours.
01:23 But it is a very dynamic situation.
01:26 There are a lot of trees over the ground, over the power lines and on the road and workers
01:31 are working hard to get in to try to fix those power lines and get people connected.
01:37 But we have been told that Victorians who are still waiting for their power to be reconnected,
01:41 some might have to wait days or even up to a week to have that restored.
01:45 There are, as we know, many homes remain without power and crews are rapidly assessing the
01:52 damage, street by street, of the damage that was caused by those events.
01:55 There is significant damage as we know.
01:58 There is significant damage statewide caused by those storms and much of it is localised
02:04 damage which is why your power may be out.
02:07 Dozens of schools have also been impacted by this wild weather with many students not
02:11 even able to go to school today because of power outages.
02:14 Some of the worst affected were in the state's central and west and also Melbourne's south
02:18 eastern suburbs.
02:21 Housing towers were also hit by these storms and many people were yesterday unable to call
02:26 triple zero.
02:27 Emergency services say they are aware and they are working on this problem.
02:31 The good news is though that the weather threat has eased.
02:34 There is still a huge clean up ahead though with thousands of trees on the roads and over
02:39 power lines and for those people who will have to wait days and maybe up to a week to
02:44 have their power restored, the Premier says that they will look at providing support and
02:48 generators to those who need it.
02:49 [BLANK_AUDIO]