Two dead and thousands without power as strong winds hit Tasmania

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Two people have been killed in Tasmania’s northwest, as wild weather brought down trees and took out power across the state. Crews have worked throughout the day, but thousands of people remain without power.

Transcript

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.

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended