In Victoria, electricity workers report that 16,501 homes and businesses remain without power after recent storms caused trees to fall and powerlines to collapse on Feb. 13. The majority of the affected properties are in Melbourne’s outer east and northern areas, as well as the eastern and north-eastern part of Victoria, as of the Feb. 17 update. AusNet Services reports that 16,333 affected customers are in these areas, while United Energy is responsible for 144 properties still needing to be reconnected in southeast Melbourne and the Mornington Peninsula.
The storms have caused about 16 homes in Mirboo North in the Gippsland region to become uninhabitable. Meanwhile, the Yarram and District Health Service and Korumburra Hospital in Gippsland are expected to have their mains power restored by the evening of Feb. 17 while they run on backup generators.
Repair crews have been actively restoring power lines and clearing fallen vegetation this week. Initially, there were 530,000 properties without electricity immediately after the storms. The Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action has estimated that it may take more than a week for homes in the most affected areas to have power restored.
Relief payments of $1,920 per week for up to three weeks are available to Victorian households without power for seven days. This payment is funded by the federal and Victorian governments and will be distributed by the electricity distributors. Premier Jacinta Allan stated that ensuring Victorians who require assistance get it promptly is a top priority and expressed her dismay at the impact of the weather event on many communities.
The Premier also criticized the federal Nationals leader for attempting to reignite the climate wars in the aftermath of the destructive storms. She rebuked David Littleproud’s argument that Victoria’s mass power outages could have been avoided with nuclear energy, reiterating that the outages were caused by local transmission damage, not a lack of energy supply. She accused conservative politicians of using the disaster to advance their political agendas rather than offering practical help to affected communities.