Power has finally been restored to more than 104,000 homes and businesses across Perth, more than 36 hours after a destructive summer storm tore through the city. However, the mammoth repair effort is not over, with approximately 8,000 properties still without electricity as of Tuesday afternoon.
Storm Leaves Trail of Destruction Across the Network
The severe weather event, which struck on Sunday evening, unleashed chaos on Western Power's infrastructure. The utility reported that the storm caused more than 270 separate incidents across its network. The damage was widespread and severe, including dozens of downed power poles, extensive damage to overhead power lines, and multiple instances where entire spans of electrical conductors were ripped down.
Western Power's General Manager of Operations, Sam Barbaro, described the scale of the challenge. "Our crews have been working around the clock in challenging conditions to restore power as safely and quickly as possible," he said. The restoration effort has been a massive logistical undertaking, involving hundreds of field crews and support staff working across the most heavily impacted suburbs.
Suburbs Hit Hardest by Extended Outages
While progress has been significant, residents in several key areas are still facing a frustrating wait. The suburbs still experiencing significant outages include:
- Bayswater
- Bassendean
- Stirling
- Swan
- Mundaring
Western Power has warned customers in these localities that they should prepare for the possibility of extended outages, potentially lasting through Tuesday night and into Wednesday. The complexity of repairs, which often involves replacing entire sections of infrastructure rather than simply resetting a switch, is driving these longer restoration times.
A Long and Challenging Road to Full Recovery
The path to full power restoration has been neither quick nor easy. For many of the 104,000 customers now back online, the wait stretched beyond a day and a half. The storm's ferocity overwhelmed initial response plans, necessitating a large-scale, sustained repair campaign.
Authorities are urging the remaining affected residents to exercise patience and caution. They advise people to treat all fallen power lines as live and extremely dangerous and to report them immediately to Western Power. For those relying on generators, officials emphasize the critical importance of using them only in well-ventilated outdoor areas to prevent carbon monoxide poisoning.
As crews continue their tireless work, the community's focus is on supporting those still in the dark while recognising the immense effort that has already returned power to the vast majority. This summer storm serves as a stark reminder of the vulnerability of essential services to extreme weather events, which are becoming an increasingly common feature of Australian summers.
