A week after the storm and Stirling’s still feeling the effects

Seven days after a severe storm ripped through the state, many residents in one Hills community are still in the dark. Here’s how small businesses and families are coping.

Restaurants and cafes were forced to throw out thousands of dollars worth of food, residents were recharged essential medical equipment at the library and families ate barbecued meals by candlelight in a week without power in the Hills tourist hub of Stirling.

The picturesque town was plunged into darkness when last Saturday’s powerful thunderstorm brought down hundreds of trees in the area.

Hospitality venues suddenly found themselves unable to make a coffee, let alone dinner, and with eftpos down they couldn’t have charged their customers anyway.

The library, powered by a diesel generator, became a hub for the region providing somewhere to charge a phone, fire up a laptop for work or just make a cup of tea and have a chat.

As the sound of chainsaws rang out across the gullies and crews worked around the clock to restore power to the last streets cut off from the grid, the Sunday Mail talk a walk through Stirling a week after the storm.

The library

There’s nothing like a blackout to drive home the fact that modern life is powered by electricity.

At least 163,000 customers across the state lost power during the storm, and in Stirling most residents found themselves in the dark on Saturday night digesting the news that electricity supply might not be restored for several days.

Enter the Coventry Library. Already an important hub for the community, the facility found itself fulfilling new roles during the blackout.

Coventry Library manager Jess Charlton created a space where residents without electricity could use the library to work and charge their devices. Picture: Brenton Edwards

Manager of libraries and customer service Jess Charlton said the library, which is powered by a generator, opened early during the blackout so people could access its services.

“People came in and charged their phones and laptops – it was really busy in the mornings,” Ms Charlton said.

“There were people accessing the power points, having hot drinks and just staying warm because the weather was cold and many people couldn’t heat their homes.”

Ms Charlton said the library even became a hub for dog owners reuniting with their beloved pooches who had run away during the storm.

“We also had people here charging medical equipment,” she said.

“People were charging things like CPAP machines that they need for their health.”

The cafe

A blackout is a chocolatier’s worst nightmare, but unseasonably cool weather and a second site that kept the power on meant Red Cacao’s Marcus Booth-Remmers didn’t lose too many of his delicious treats. But the popular Stirling cafe certainly lost plenty of business.

“Weekends are our busiest trade,” he said.

“We lost the last half of Saturday trading, then three days trading before the power came back on Tuesday night.

“The staff have to deal with loss of income, which for me is the hardest part. They have their own families to look after. I’ve tried to compensate that by offering more shifts and the chance to work at our second site.”

Chocolatier Marcus Booth-Remmers from Red Cacao cafe is one of hundreds of businesses and residents of Stirling in the Adelaide Hills who are recovering from a devastating storm last Saturday. Picture: Brenton Edwards

Mr Booth-Remmers said he was currently looking at making a claim on his insurance.

“They tend to have ways of getting around these things, so we’ll see how far that goes.”

The restaurant

Across the road at Miss Perez Kitchen and Bar, chef Ben Skelton found himself dealing with the heartbreaking task of throwing out thousands of dollars worth of spoiled food.

“We’ve had to throw out 50 per cent or more of our stock,” Mr Skelton said.

“All the meat’s gone, all the dairy has gone, all the fish has gone, most of our sauces have gone. Thousands of dollars of product, and the hundreds of hours of labour that went into that product. All gone.”

On top of that, Mr Skelton said, the restaurant lost most of its valuable weekend trade.

“Saturday night is the busiest night of the week, and we probably do half our trade over the weekend,” he said.

Chef Ben Skelton from Miss Perez Kitchen and Bar is one of hundreds of businesses and residents of Stirling in the Adelaide Hills who are recovering from a devastating storm last Saturday. Picture: Brenton Edwards

Mr Skelton said the day after the power went out was “mayhem” in Hills communities as residents rushed to get hold of essentials.

“It was impossible to secure a generator from anywhere,” he said.

“We couldn’t get one until late Tuesday, and by that stage the fridges had been down for three days.

“I went to Bunnings at Mt Barker to see if they had any and they had no power and were waiting on a generator of their own!”

Mr Skelton said the next task was compiling stock loss lists for insurance purposes.

“But if the experiences of 2016 taught us anything it’s that insurance agencies will only pay out a small percentage of what was lost,” he said.

The families

Daniel O’Rielly was watching the rain with his baby son Charlie on Saturday afternoon when he heard “a massive bang”. It was a tree falling on his the carport of his Mabel Road home.

“They’ve knocked down the house next door and cleared all the trees,” Mr O’Rielly said.

“But the one tree they left fell on our carport.”

The carport is probably a write off, he says, but he’s hoping the family’s Toyota Kluger is repairable.

Mr O’Rielly, his wife Kyra and Charlie have moved out to stay with family in Adelaide while repair crews work to restore power to Mabel Road and surrounds, one of the last places still without electricity in Stirling.

Kyra Middlemiss and her husband Daniel O'Rielly and baby Charlie are among of hundreds of residents of Stirling in the Adelaide Hills who are recovering from a devastating storm last Saturday. Picture: Brenton Edwards

Electrician Ed Vann is one of hundreds of residents of Stirling in the Adelaide Hills who are recovering from a devastating storm last Saturday. The Mabel St resident is still without power seven days later. Picture: Brenton Edwards

Up the road a little, however, Ed Vann and his family have stuck it out.

“It’s been pretty tough,” Mr Vann said.

“It’s pretty difficult with two young children – they’re five and two. My partner and I have been charging our phones and laptops at work.

“But you know what, there are worse things happening in the world and we’re just happy nobody got hurt.

“SA Power Networks have been incredible, texting all the time and keeping us informed.”

SA Power Networks estimates that all parts of Stirling should have power restored by Sunday evening.