Storm causes disruption across Greater Shepparton

The southern parts of Shepparton were the most affected, with some homes across Kialla and Mooroopna losing power as well as in Murchison, Toolamba, Arcadia and Dhurringile.

A large number of traffic lights along key streets and roads — including the Goulburn Valley Hwy in Kialla and McLennan St in Mooroopna — also went down.

The Department of Transport announced buses would replace trains on some services Tuesday afternoon.

Metro services were impacted on sections of the Belgrave, Craigieburn, Cranbourne, Frankston, Glen Waverley, and Pakenham lines, as well as the V/Line services on sections of the Gippsland, Seymour and Shepparton lines.

At 4pm on Tuesday, Powercor spokesperson Jordan Oliver told The News that there had been 4500 outages in Greater Shepparton due to “storm damage”.

Powercor initially notified some residents in the southern parts of Greater Shepparton that the power was estimated to be restored by midnight, but later revised that message to 6.30pm.

At about 6.30pm, the outages map on Powercor’s website reflected an estimated restoration time of 6.30pm on Wedneday, February 14, for areas of Kialla, Arcadia and Shepparton that had lost their power.

Residents in the Murchison and Toolamba areas retained an estimated time of 11.30pm on Tuesday for their power to return.

Mooroopna residents had their power returned about 7.30pm Tuesday.

Half an hour later, most houses across Greater Shepparton had their power restored.

Around 120 houses remained without power in Kialla, down from over 1600, and around 1000 houses remained without power in Murchison, Toolamba, Arcadia and Dhurringile.

On Wednesday morning, February 14, there were almost 100 houses in Kialla still without power, but most other residents had their power restored.

Also on Wednesday, at 10.30am, Powercor released an updated statement on the situation.

“Over the past 24 hours, we have restored power to more than 150,000 customers,” the statement said.

“Yesterday’s wild weather caused extensive damage to poles, wires and other electrical infrastructure.

“We are responding to more than 450 fault jobs across western and central Victoria.

“We have extra crews on the ground focused on repairing damage and getting power restored to the remaining 9000 homes and businesses still off supply.

“We understand how frustrating it is to be without power, and we thank our customers for their understanding as we work to get power back on.

“We expect to get power back on to most properties today.

“However, there will be some customers who may be off supply into tomorrow.

“We will keep people updated via SMS, our website and our customer centre.

“We urge people to stay well away from fallen power lines, always assume they are live and report them immediately to us on 13 24 12.”

The wild weather that caused the initial outages actually only lasted in Shepparton for about 15 minutes on Tuesday afternoon, before a proper storm arrived Tuesday night.

The Department of Transport alerted the public that services were still being impacted into Wednesday, with buses replacing some trains across Victoria.

Trains on the Seymour Line had resumed between Seymour and Southern Cross; however, there would be delays to some services due to ongoing power outages between Kilmore East and Seymour.

Hundreds of traffic lights were still without power or flashing yellow.

In the statement, the Department of Transport said at intersections where traffic lights were blacked out or flashing yellow, motorists should obey the rules of a Stop or Give Way sign.

At 4pm on Wednesday some homes in Kialla were still without power.

The Powercor website had listed the estimation for restoration of power at 3.30pm on Thursday, February 15, and said the outage was due to a tree, presumably damaged/knocked over during the storm.