By Tyler Wright
A trusty generator is what helped a Gembrook resident during the night on Tuesday 2 August and into Wednesday 3 August when his home lost power.
The local, who requested not to be named, was alerted to the outage caused by severe winds when his computer’s back up battery started beeping to let him know.
“We have a backup switch to plug a generator in; if you live up in the Dandenongs you basically need one to get by,” the resident said.
“We knew [winds] were coming, and we always have a generator with petrol by it ready for whenever an incident happens.
[In the]morning that was my first task; to get the generator and to plug it in, that way the family could could share it and we could get ready for work.”
This Gembrook homeowner was one of thousands in the area with no power until 4:00pm on Wednesday 3 August after wind gusts of up to 110km/hr swept through the Dandenong Ranges and the Yarra Valley on the evening of Tuesday 2 August.
Before 7:30pm on Wednesday 3 August, five Ausnet customers located in Gembrook were still yet to have their power restored; a number which sat at 1125 before 4:00pm.
453 customers in Avonsleigh were waiting on their power to return before 7:30pm on Wednesday, followed by 240 households in Ferny Creek.
205 customers in Cockatoo were without power before 7:30pm, followed by 143 in Avonsleigh and 125 in Emerald.
Other suburbs impacted were Ferny Creek with 240 outages, Ferntree Gully with 157 alongside Kallista and Belgrave Heights with 162 and 145 outages respectively.
Following suit were The Patch (113), Belgrave South (13), Belgrave (36) and Menzies Creek (7).
Staff at Gembrook IGA took matters into their own hands to find a solution and supplied residents with free tea, coffee and power throughout the day during the outages.
“We made maybe 30 coffees [on Wednesday for] locals, and people and came in…some people offered to pay, I said ‘no no, I don’t want your money,’ Gembrook IGA owner Andrew Spark said.
“We don’t normally make sandwiches because there’s a bakery in town; but because they were shut as well, we’ve been making sandwiches and put some pies in our chicken warmer; that’s been well received as well,” Mr Spark said.
A large powerpoint outlet sat at the front of the store where locals and businesses were able to charge their devices.
“We’ve just done extra things that we don’t normally do, because the businesses that do normally do that that haven’t been able to open today, because they’ve not had any power; they haven’t got generators where I’ve got a big generator that runs my whole store,” Mr Spark said.
While locals in the Dandenong Ranges may be accustomed to losing power and gas heating being cut off, Mr Spark is always happy to lend the community a helping hand.
“It’s about looking after those who need something, rather than charging them for it.”
