{"id":21498,"date":"2013-01-27T10:15:24","date_gmt":"2013-01-27T00:15:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=21498"},"modified":"2023-11-20T12:47:04","modified_gmt":"2023-11-20T02:47:04","slug":"ergon-crews-assessing-damage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2013\/01\/27\/ergon-crews-assessing-damage\/","title":{"rendered":"Ergon Crews Assessing Damage"},"content":{"rendered":"

January 27, 2013<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ergon Energy will continue damage assessments of the electricity network across the Wide Bay and Burnett districts today as heavy weather and rising flood levels continue to impact power.<\/p>\n

Emergency planning is also underway to prepare for flooding in Bundaberg, Gayndah, Mundubbera, Childers and Maryborough areas.<\/p>\n

More than 14,000 customers have had power interrupted \u2013 some since yesterday – in a number of areas with the biggest impacts in the northern Wide Bay coast and North Burnett.<\/p>\n

General Manager Service Delivery Southern Paul Jordon said Ergon\u2019s regional disaster management processes were fully mobilised yesterday and plans were in place to get power restoration and repairs underway as soon as possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cWeather conditions have not given our crews much of a chance to attend to repairs and we have focussed on ensuring public safety with fallen powerlines or downed poles,\u201d Mr Jordon said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are also very conscious of flood safety and some sections of network will need to be isolated if flood levels threaten to inundate our assets,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cInitial assessments indicate we will have a lengthy repair process. It appears some sections of high and low voltage network will have to be rebuilt,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the rain and wind eases, our crews will be moved in to begin restoration where possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ergon has already mobilised extra crews to assist \u2013 including preparing crews to travel from North Queensland. <\/p>\n

With localised flooding however, reinforcements would be located at staging locations outside affected districts until they could safely travel to required locations.<\/p>\n

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