Power outages and flooding continue to shut schools
Power outages from wild weather including thousands of lightning strikes across South Australia continue to leave thousands without electricity and nine public school sites closed again today, one due to flooding.
A fallen tree at Tusmore yesterday. Photo: Tony Lewis/InDaily
About 10,000 customers are still without power after crews worked through the night in “pretty awful conditions”, according to SA Power Networks spokesperson Paul Roberts.
“We’ve had about 100,000 lightning strikes since midnight on Sunday that were cloud to ground,” Roberts, who has worked at SA Power Networks for 16 years, said.
“I don’t personally recall that number of cloud to ground strikes in a single event.”
A helicopter was now in use in the Yorke Peninsula and Mid North region to identify outage problem sites with plans of using another around Kangaroo Island if weather conditions improve.
Roberts said crews hoped to get most customers’ power returned by the end of today but there were likely to be persistent problems for some areas, particularly around Yorke Peninsula and the mid-North. Since midnight on Sunday, crews have restored power to more than 120,000 customers.
An Education Department spokesperson said several government schools and pre-schools were closed this morning.
“Most sites are closed due to power outages, while at least one has experienced flooding (Morphett Vale East Kindergarten),” she said.
“Each site has advised their school communities directly of the closure, and appreciates the support of their families.”
Earlier this morning the sites closed were;
- Booleroo Centre and District Kindy;
- Booleroo Centre District School;
- Orroroo Preschool and Area School;
- Peterborough Primary School;
- Peterborough High School;
- Peterborough Preschool;
- Keyneton Primary School;
- McKay Children’s Centre;
- Morphett Vale East Kindergarten.
“The Department is also aware that several sites have been impacted by the weather this week, experiencing issues such as leaks, flooding or damage, but are continuing to operate safely,” the spokesperson said.
“The Department for Education is working with those schools and contractors to arrange repairs as quickly as possible.”
Yesterday, more than 31,000 homes and businesses were without power after an overnight thunderstorm downed powerlines and trees and forced the closure of nine state schools and a university campus.
SA Power Networks crews worked through the night to restore power.
