CYCLONE ALFRED

ENERGEX TEAM GOES OVER AND  ABOVE TO GET OUR ISLANDS RECONNECTED

The unsung heroes of the Cyclone Alfred disaster were the hundreds of workers in many areas, but particularly Energex.

The islands are used to being the ‘last on the list’ for just about everything, but something changed in the aftermath of Alfred.

Queensland Premier David Crisafulli was the first person to recognise that our cluster of islands bore the initial brunt of Cyclone Alfred at its centre.

Hardly any news outlets made that observation.

For some years now your Friendly Bay Islander has worked very closely with Energex/Ergon Energy via its Communications Division and Energex Senior Corporate Advisor Danny Donald.

It is Danny and his team that have always kept us advised as to energy problems and power outages on our islands.

And we have to say that during and the continual aftermath of Cyclone Alfred, they worked tirelessly to assist us.

The Friendly Bay Islander was in constant contact and we were able to find out and help pinpoint some of the issues islanders were experiencing.

Usually in ‘normal’ storm-related incidents, the problem can be resolved fairly quickly.

Cyclone Alfred was not a ‘normal occurance’.

At its peak, 400,000 SE homes were without power.

During the last day of the Cyclone at its worst, Energex crews went out in appalling conditions and reduced that huge number to 300,000.

it was at that time, via Danny Donald and his team, they were able to send the first Energex crews to our islands.

They were confronted by primary and secondary issues all over our islands.

Needless to say that the number of trees on our islands played a huge part in the debacle that we will write about elsewhere in this edition.

Danny Donald tells us that Energex set up specialist crew for different areas of SE Queensland. One of those was for the Redlands and our islands, established in Cleveland and co-ordinated by Work Group Leader Ryan Tuivaiti.

They worked all hours for days and, via conversations with Danny and their island teams, they quickly addressed island issues.

And from what we are told. there were some formidable obstacles.

But working in extreme conditions, they soon had the islands back up and connected.

Some areas on the islands were without power for just three days, whilst others it stretched to almost a week.

Mopping up by Energex crews saw them here for more that one week.

Thanks so much for a job well done in extreme circumstances from the people of the SMB Islands, Coochiemudlo Island and North Stradbroke Island.

• Ryan Tuivaiti, Danny Donald and the Energex team that did so much for our islands.