GETTING Mirboo North residents reconnected to mobile phones and providing emergency power for the town’s shops and businesses will be a focus in the town, according to SES Incident Controller Jackson Bell.
A large generator, mainly to reactivate the businesses in the town, and a Sky Muster Satellite Truck have been deployed to the town and are being set up this morning, ahead of a town meeting at 2pm today, Friday, February 16.
Restoration of power to the rest of the town is being hampered by the large number of trees and powerlines brought down, with lines still down in many locations making reactivation of power impossible in many areas at this stage.
SES Controller Bell provided an update earlier on Friday.
“The main thing we want to do today is connect with community particularly in providing more information as we’ve seen some restoral of some services in the broader surrounding areas, but today, we're really looking to engage the community,” said Controller Bell.
“We’ve got a community meeting later this afternoon at 2 o'clock in Mirboo North and additionally, we're really keen to provide an update but also support services that continue to offer that level of support as this community continues to recover."
“As you alluded to, there is still approximately 25,000 houses without power but today fortunately there is a large generator that has arrived overnight, and work will commence with AusNet this afternoon in reconnecting some elements of the community. We know that in that community, whilst most will obviously want their power restored, this is an important piece particularly in ensuring that local business can get some power restored. We know that local businesses are doing it tough. So again, this is the start of it.”
South Gippsland Shire Council staff will also be onsite today and among other things, a Skymaster mobile internet trailer has been set up, and will soon be operating to get people back on mobile.
“At the moment, they are working to get that up and running and again this morning, that's the key focus, getting community connected as quickly as possible.
“There's been some fantastic work done in those local communities in such a short period of time. I guess if you look at the amount of work, particularly in the complexity of restoring power lines, and also mobile infrastructure within the area, there's been such great work done by a lot of those technicians coming from all around Victoria and Australia to get some of these communities back up and running.”
There was also a note about being able to access showers and facilities to recharge your mobile phone at the Churchill Leisure Centre, corner of Northways Road and McDonald Way.
But the main message is getting the Mirboo North community connected and having power progressively restored, but Mr Bell warned that there are concerns as power comes back on.
“So, we're expecting to obviously get more community connected. We really want to reinforce that there are some areas that do have downed power lines, particularly in Mirboo North and surrounding areas. Those crews are going to work quite hard at getting power restored and they won't be restoring power where they still haven't been able to right those power lines that are still down.
“We know though that there are some in community that are just moving the power lines and they are frustrated which we can appreciate. We just want to make sure that everyone stays safe. So, if there is a fallen power line, they can report those but initially we want to make sure that people just stay well clear until it's determined that there is no risk, so don't move them and keep yourself out of harm's way.
They can report requests for assistance back through the SES 132 500. We know that there isn't that request opportunity there because of connectivity but as we expect to see more connectivity for community, we're expecting to see some of our demand increase.
“So, we are reaching out to communities to say if you do need SES support, whether it be for fallen trees, building damage, and other areas of support from the SES, please contact 132500.
“We've got additional task forces coming in from all across Victoria to support these communities in South Gippsland. It's really important that we can support the community on the long road to recovery.”