A fierce New Year's Eve storm brought more than just rain to Canberra's southern suburbs, with a direct lightning strike causing a widespread power outage that left more than 1200 customers in the dark.
System Shutdown Prevents Major Damage
The incident occurred on Wednesday evening, December 31, 2025, when a bolt of lightning hit a protection device on an overhead power asset. According to an Evoenergy spokeswoman, the impact triggered an automatic system shutdown at 4:56pm, deliberately cutting power to prevent more severe network damage.
The controlled outage affected 1259 customers across the suburbs of Greenway, Kambah, Oxley, and Wanniassa. Evoenergy crews, working through the holiday period, managed to fully restore power by 5:52pm, resolving the issue in under an hour.
Shoppers Caught in Supermarket Blackout
The strike coincided with the arrival of Marion Leiba, an 80-year-old Kambah resident, her daughter Nadine Leiba, and grandson Griffin Farrelley at the Wanniassa shops. "There was a blinding white flash, followed immediately by a loud crack and I wondered if we were going to die," Mrs Leiba recounted.
The family hurried into the local Coles supermarket just as a second crack sounded. The lights cut out, and light fittings fell from the ceiling. Inside, the scene was one of confusion as the front roller door descended, plunging shoppers into darkness. "People were groping around trying to shop in the dark," Mrs Leiba said.
Despite the chaos, Nadine Leiba was able to complete her grocery shop using the torch on her phone and paid without issue at a self-serve EFTPOS terminal, which remained operational. Staff calmly evacuated customers via a side door as a safety precaution.
Aftermath and Ongoing Issues
While power was restored quickly, some flow-on effects were felt the following day. A sign at the Coles Wanniassa on Thursday indicated that cash withdrawal services were unavailable. Some customers also reported intermittent problems with EFTPOS payments, though a Coles spokesperson confirmed these issues were being investigated.
The spokesperson praised the store team's response, stating they "supported those who were in store at the time by calmly evacuating the store, as per our standard processes to keep everyone safe."
Interestingly, other businesses within the same Wanniassa shopping centre were unaffected because they are supplied by a different part of the electrical network.
For retired seismologist Marion Leiba, used to analysing earthquakes and landslides, the event was a personal shock. "For someone who deals with natural disasters, it doesn't matter. Gee, I was scared," she admitted, comparing it to a close encounter with lightning on New Zealand's Mount Ruapehu in 1974.
The event serves as a stark reminder of the power of summer storms in the ACT and the critical role of safety systems in protecting infrastructure from more catastrophic damage.
