Dig puts lights out

ALMOST 2000 LEFT WITHOUT POWER AFTER HIGH VOLTAGE CABLE IS HIT

By Declan Martin and Hayden Thomson

Thousands of people in Kialla, Mooroopna and the outlying areas of Greater Shepparton went without power for about an hour yesterday.

A Powercor spokesperson said the outage at 10.20 am was caused by a high voltage power cable being dug up during construction work at the corner of Riverview Dve and Kialla Tip Rd in Kialla.

‘‘An external contractor did not follow procedure when digging and hit a high voltage power cable,’’ the spokesperson said.

‘‘Powercor crews managed to re-route the power to restore electricity to the area while working on repairing the cable.

‘‘Power was restored gradually from 11.15 am onwards, in total 1920 customers were affected by the outage.’’

The blackout affected many traffic lights at several busy intersections causing some road chaos with police called to direct traffic in Mooroopna.

Many cafe and food outlet owners said they were disappointed with the loss of power that happened just before the important lunchtime trading period.

‘‘I’ve packed up and had to tell some staff not to come in,’’ JD Juices and Sandwiches’ Dodie Joiner said.

‘‘I had to throw away the hot food cooked earlier in the day, it’s one of our busiest days, so it’s disappointing but what can you do?’’

Degani Shepparton owner Luke Hedger said the power outage took a big chunk of yesterday’s trade away.

‘‘We still had gas so could cook some meals but people walked in and noticed the power was out and left,’’ Mr Hedger said.

‘‘That 10 am to 3 pm window is a busy time for us.’’

Kebab Boyz owner Ersen Aktas said it was not good for business because Thursday was their main trading day.

‘‘Luckily we have gas rotisseries, but we need power to turn them, so we’ve had to manually rotate our meat,’’ Mr Aktas said.

Closed: Coles shut up shop during the power outage that affected large parts of Kialla and Mooroopna on Thursday.

No power: Degani Cafe owner Luke Hedger left in the dark after power was lost in Kialla.

Lights out: Kebab Boyz Riverside owner Ersen Aktas was left in the lurch after losing power yesterday.

Business interrupted: Dodie Joiner from JD’s Juice and Sandwiches had to call and tell some staff to take the day off on Thursday.

Left in the dark: Rylee Brawn, of Bright Eyes Hairdressing, was left without hot water, EFTPOS and the use of hairdryers in the power outage.