LATEST @ 6AM, DECEMBER 29 | Another 10,000 homes and businesses across the Gold Coast have had their power restored in the last 24 hours but there is still plenty of work to do.
As of Friday morning, 21,896 customers on the Gold Coast are still waiting for their services to be restored, along with another 6,241 in the Scenic Rim.
Energex crews will spend another day frantically trying to restore services in a number of Gold Coast suburbs.
Meanwhile, City of Gold Coast has warned some sewage pump stations are without power as they prioritise the water supply for the city.
“Please do not swim in creeks, rivers or Broadwater swim locations until advised it’s safe – stick to open beach areas to keep cool,” Council said in a statement on Thursday afternoon.
“Water quality testing will begin today and we will be updating residents as we know more about specific swimming locations.”
Areas of focus for Energex today:
• Arundel, Coombabah, Labrador, Parkwood
• Burleigh Heads, Elanora, Tallebudgera, Tallebudgera Valley, Varsity Lakes, Reedy Creek
• Beenleigh, Mount Warren Park, Stapylton, Yatala, Oxenford, Upper Coomera
• Coomera, Helensvale, Oxenford
• Maudsland, Oxenford, Upper Coomera
• Gaven, Helensvale, Oxenford, Pacific Pines
• Upper Coomera
• Currumbin, Currumbin Waters, Palm Beach, Tugun
• Gaven, Maudsland, Oxenford, Pacific Pines, Coomera, Helensvale, Hope Island,
• Hollywell, Paradise Point, Runaway Bay
• Palm Beach
Some customers in these areas (or parts thereof) are expected to be restored by the evening.
Areas of focus for Energex 30 DECEMBER:
• Burleigh Heads, Currumbin Valley, Reedy Creek, Tallebudgera, Tallebudgera Valley
• Oxenford, Pacific Pines
• Helensvale, Hope Island
• Pimpama, Upper Coomera, Willow Vale
• Currumbin Waters, Elanora
• Arundel, Gaven, Nerang, Southport
• Coomera
• Coombabah, Hollywell, Paradise Point, Runaway Bay
• Molendinar
• Gilston, Mudgeeraba, Tallai, Worongary
• Carrara, Highland Park, Merrimac, Nerang, Reedy Creek, Worongary
• Advancetown, Beechmont, Clagiraba, Lower Beechmont, Mount Nathan, Nerang
• Merrimac, Robina
• Kingsholme, Ormeau, Ormeau Hills, Yatala
Areas of focus for Energex 30 DECEMBER:
• Beaudesert, Cedar Grove, Cedar Vale, Gleneagle, Mundoolun, Veresdale, Veresdale Scrub
• Biddaddaba, Tabragalba
• Coomera, Helensvale, Oxenford, Upper Coomera
• Pimpama
• Coombabah, Runaway Bay
• Biggera Waters, Hollywell
• Bilinga, Coolangatta, Tugun
• Bonogin
• Austinville, Beechmont, Mudgeeraba, Natural Bridge, Neranwood, Numinbah Valley, Springbrook
• Advancetown, Gilston, Highland Park, Nerang, Tallai
• Flagstone
EARLIER @ 8AM, DECEMBER 28 | Energex has managed to restore power to another 30,000 homes and businesses across the Gold Coast but thousands more remain offline for a third day.
As of Thursday morning, 32,814 customers across the Gold Coast are still without power plus another 7,144 in the Scenic Rim.
Energex is confident of getting a large chunk of those back online in the next 24 to 48 hours as crews ramp up efforts to restore power lines in local streets.
“Yesterday the priority was making safe and doing a lot more assessing, including with helicopters and some of the more terrain-type, hinterland areas,” Danny Donald from Energex said.
“But today is really getting those wires back up and getting stuck into restoring the low voltage in the street-by-street areas.”
However, some of the worst affected areas could be waiting even longer to have power restored.
Mr Donald says crews have still be unable to get into many areas, especially in the Hinterland.
“It’s just a case of getting into the areas, removing and waiting for a lot of this stuff on the side of the road to be removed.
“We’ll get there but, unfortunately, that’s just going to be one of the areas where we’re going to have to wait a little bit longer while that damage is repaired.”
Energex is pleading for patience, insisting crews are working tirelessly to restore power to all areas as quickly as possible.
EARLIER, @ 8am December 27 | Crews have worked tirelessly to restore power to thousands of homes across the Gold Coast but there is still a long way to go.
As at 8am on Wednesday, just over 62,000 homes and businesses across the city remained offline.
That’s down from more than 90,000 following Monday’s freak storm that brought down dozens of powerlines and damaged a stack of power poles.
“Yesterday was spent removing debris and gaining access to a lot of areas and then starting to work on the high voltage network. Today we’ll be concentrating on getting street-by-street premises back up and running onto the grid.,” Energex spokesperson Danny Donald told myGC.
Upper Coomera, Pimpama, Pacific Pines, Hope Island and Paradise Point remain some of the worst affected suburbs but dozens more are impacted.
While it’s hoped power can be restored to the majority of customers in the next couple of days, some areas may be waiting longer, especially in the Hinterland.
“It’s still going to be those really badly affected areas where damage is still being assessed and we’re gaining access. I’m talking up in the mountains,heavily wooded areas.
“But at this stage, we’re hoping to get another good chunk of customers back onto the network today and tomorrow and then we will continue with the heavy lifting in the subsequent days.”
Image: Energex
Mr Donald says the damage is among the worst ever seen on the Gold Coast.
“We were seeing concrete poles snapped in half. We’re talking concrete reinforced steel. Concrete poles completely snapped in half.
So this is damage that we’ve just never seen before and it has been a really big task just to assess the damage that those cyclonic winds brought onto the Gold Coast and Scenic Rim as well as Logan.”
