Cyclone Seroja: almost three months on Western Power has completed all power repairs to damaged infrastructure

Western Power has now completed all repairs related to cyclone Seroja, almost three months after the region’s worst storm in 50 years made landfall.

More than 31,000 people lost power in and around Kalbarri, Geraldton, Northampton, Mullewa, Dongara and Port Denison when winds of up to 170km/h tore across the region on April 11.

Most Geraldton residents went without power for about three days, but communities north of the port city had to wait weeks for their power to be reconnected.

At the time, Western Power Operations asset manager Zane Christmas said nothing could have prevented the widespread outages.

“Nothing will really stand up to 170km/h wind gusts and our network is no different ... it’s not something that we could plan for or mitigate against,” he said.

Damage was done to a 150km by 700km area across the Mid West, with the recovery effort including the replacement of 1307 power poles, 945 cross arms and 221.51km worth of conductors. Crews also worked on an additional 2056 poles and 68 transformers, 53 of which had to be replaced.

A Western Power spokesperson said some connections were still coming through and customers were encourage to get in touch if they did not have power.