POWER CUT HITS SHOPS, HOMES
A CUT wire blacked out more than 7000 homes and shut down half of a newly renovated supermarket in Southport yesterday.
Woolworths in Southport Park was forced to close its deli, cold meat, milk and small goods departments after the outage yesterday morning.
The outage was caused by construction workers who cut through a wire at the old Target site at Southport Park Shopping Centre.
Workers cut the wire about 11.20am, causing a blackout in 6306 homes in Southport and 1220 in Labrador. It also affected homes in Arundel, Ashmore and Main Beach.
Last night more than 50 homes and businesses in Southport were still without power.
Shopper Chloe Jade, said she was shocked to find the Southport Park centre dark and Woolworths half closed.
“I wondered why there were so many parks, there wasn’t anything to say it was closed until you got inside,” she said.
“You could still buy some things, but all their fridges were covered.”
Labrador resident Lani Ford said the power was off for about half an hour.
“It was boiling,” she said. “I called Energex and went outside to check the metre. I noticed lots of people in the road.”
The outage disrupted many businesses, who were forced to minimise operations, or close.