ABOUT 50,000 homes and businesses were out of power this morning, with about 14,000 customers still awaiting restoration.
Thousands of Perth homes and businesses are out of power in an unplanned outage after last night’s weather.
A Western Power spokesperson said at peak there were about 50,000 customers affected overnight, with 14,000 still awaiting restoration.
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READ NOW“The outages were caused by pole damage from the recent weather experienced across Perth and Midwest areas overnight, and continuing throughout today,” she said.
“All available crews in the metropolitan area and north to Kalbarri, including those who were scheduled to complete other planned work, have been redirected to assess, make safe and repair damage ahead of restoring power.”
The city wide outage has affected customers from Mandurah up to Bullsbrook, with large clusters in the south-eastern suburbs.
The spokesperson said their priority was to make all affected areas safe and then restore power as quickly as possible.
“There were around 60 pole top fires,” she said.
“We are managing around 100 pole top fires in various locations across the network that have been damaged through humidity and moisture.
“When we have misty and/or humid conditions, generally along the coast, or light drizzling rain, this can combine with dust and pollution and create a paths or ‘tracks’ on the insulators which lets electricity jump across.”
The restoration time is unknown.
Traffic signals in various suburbs in the metropolitan were blacked out but have since been restored.
— If you see a fallen power line, please Make The Safe Call to Western Power on the emergency 24/7 number 13 13 51.