00:00Trees brought down, roads closed and thousands left without power as destructive winds tore
00:08across the state. The North West was hit first and hardest before the front moved east and
00:14later affected the south. At midday emergency services were called to a rural property in
00:20the North West where a tree had fallen on two people.
00:24Both people were on private property out in the open when the tree fell.
00:29They both died at the scene. Police are yet to reveal any more details. They're urging
00:35the community to heed warnings.
00:38Please consider carefully before you put yourself into any situation where you may be affected
00:43by this severe weather.
00:44So we had a strong cold front across Tasmania this morning. That brought damaging to destructive
00:50winds across parts of the state, particularly across the West and the North.
00:54Parts of a brick wall collapsed from the third story of a building in Burnie and power poles
00:59snapped near Lagana. All Qantas flights were cancelled at Devonport Airport, ferries suspended
01:05in Hobart and all parks closed in Launceston. The SES had crews out from before sunrise, responding
01:12to more than 70 requests for assistance across the state, mostly due to wind related damage
01:18and trees down on houses and across roads.
01:21Most of those requests have related to windows being blown out of residential and commercial
01:28buildings. We've had one instance of a residence losing its entire roof.
01:33At the Mersey Community Hospital in La Trobe, it was water causing problems in the emergency
01:38department. Ambulances had to bypass the hospital for several hours. At the peak of the power outages
01:45this morning, 21,000 customers had lost supply, mostly in the North West and North.
01:51People who lost power in remote areas could be facing a wait. Tas Networks has warned it
01:55may take a few days for power to be restored and residents should prepare accordingly or relocate.
02:02Lessons have been learned since August last year, when Tas Networks was criticised over its
02:07lacking communication with customers.
02:09We have a range of different things that people can reach out to and we can reach out to people.
02:14I would encourage people in particular to phone our call centre at 132 004 to use our website
02:23where you can.
02:24The winds are expected to continue to ease throughout the night and into the weekend, but rivers
02:29are now rising and there are flood warnings for several waterways.
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