TasNetworks brings in interstate help for “days to weeks” of repairs ahead to the extensively damaged network

Residents are counting the cost as the damage assessment begins across the state following almost a week of wild weather. What’s to come:

Potentially weeks of repair work is looming across the state as the damage caused by severe weather is fully assessed, with many residents in the North and North West still without power and some roads remaining closed.

The Derwent Valley township of Maydena was without power for more than 60 hours as a result of the wild weather, with some households dealt a double blow by not qualifying for government assistance to replace fresh and frozen food spoiled, which kicks in after 72 hours.

Maydena resident and general manager of Waterfalls Cafe and Gallery in the Mt Field national park Danni Budgen has an auto-immune disease requiring at-home dialysis, making the sustained power outage especially “scary”.

Maydena Resident Danni Budgen had to travel through flood waters for dialysis during power outage at Maydena. Picture: Elise Kaine

“Not knowing the power outage was coming, not knowing when it’s going to come back on, and having to actually travel down the road through flood water in all the weather to actually get on dialysis and then travel back home in conditions that are possibly worse was a little bit scary,” she said.

She waited the maximum safe time between treatments before travelling through the flood waters to Nephrology South at New Town, which made room for her to receive dialysis.

“It just makes you realise how little there is up here, not just for people in my situation but simply any situation,” she said, adding that other residents in the regions were unable to use oxygen or CPAP machines to alleviate the symptoms of sleep apnoea.

Labor member for Derwent Craig Farrell and Waterfalls Cafe and Gallery owner Rachel Power. Picture: Elise Kaine

Member of the Legislative Council for Derwent Craig Farrell has written to Premier Jeremy Rockliff asking him to reconsider the time limit on accessing Emergency Food Grant Fund for individuals.

“Up here every hour is two hours,” Mr Farrell said.

“It takes much longer to restock, you can’t just whiz down to the supermarket,”

A government spokesman said there were other avenues for Tasmanians to access relief if they did not meet the criteria for the EFGF.

The Bureau of Meteorology forecast for Friday is for the wind strength to pick up again, however they will not be as strong as last week.

TasNetworks was still busy repairing extensive damage to the network, bringing in 22 interstate contractors to help restore power to almost 8600 households across more than 620 active jobs on Thursday morning.

The Lyell Highway at Plenty has been reopened to one lane with traffic signals and workers on site while RoadsTas works on a plan to repair the road. Picture: RoadsTas

By Thursday afternoon, 4664 households across 135 outages remained, with more than 3000 of these in the North.

TasNetworks acting operations executive Tim Gowland said while “days to weeks” of work remains, the interstate support crews would help the existing workforce address outages in the north and north-west.

The Lyell Highway at Plenty was reopened with one lane on Thursday afternoon and will remain under traffic management until both lanes can be safely used.

Lake Dobson Rd to Mt Field remains closed and a State Growth spokesman said they hope to have this open in time for the weekend.

New Norfolk Bowls club volunteer David Briggs, independent senator for Tasmania Jacqui Lambie, Shane Malone, Shane Hugo and Denzil Ransley clean up the bowls club after the flood. Picture: Elise Kaine

Volunteers from the New Norfolk Bowls Club were busy on Thursday attending to equipment that was water damaged after clearing away the mud from the fields.

David Briggs has volunteered at the club for nearly 20 years and said, weather permitting, the bowls season would not be delayed as a result of the damage.

Independent senator Jacqui Lambie said she had been following the news of the bowls club flood and was amazed when she saw the work put in over the past 36 hours.

“I was expecting everything to be covered in silt and water – but those guys were amazing,”