About 24,000 Victorian homes and businesses are still without power five days since a storm swept across the state.<\/p>\n
Disaster relief payments of up to $42,000 will be available for homes and businesses that need immediate relief after damage from floods and storms.<\/p>\n
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Still no power in Kalorama as emergency services work to clear the storm damage.<\/span>Credit:<\/span>Carole Rushbrook<\/cite><\/p>\n \u201cWe took a walk in our community and most of the power lines have been pulled down by big heavy trees,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cUntil all the trees are cleared AusNet won\u2019t be able to come in and do anything with the electricity.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a tough battle for them. And I think they\u2019re working really hard.\u201d<\/p>\n AusNet spokesperson Steve Brown apologised to customers who still don\u2019t have their power switched on.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are incredibly sorry, we understand that waking up for the fifth day in a row with no power is a pretty terrible circumstance,\u201d he said on 3AW.<\/p>\n \u201c[Restoring power] is the only thing anyone at our organisation is working on at the moment. We\u2019re getting the lights and the heater and the fridge back on as soon as we can.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOur crews have an incredibly difficult job having to clear multiple areas where vegetation has taken down our lines, make repairs, re-string the lines, testing to make sure they\u2019re safe, and then they move on a couple of hundred metres and do it all over again.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr Brown says although people in storm-affected areas are becoming tired they must be cautious when clearing their neighbourhoods.<\/p>\n \u201cPlease treat any downed wires or damaged electrical infrastructure as live and stay as far away from it as you possibly can,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n About 180,000 homes and businesses were reconnected to power by Monday morning.<\/p>\n Mr Brown said Ausnet had partnered with local governments to form recovery hubs in areas where it will be several days until the power is turned back on.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can charge your phone, we\u2019ve delivered care packages with essential supplies like food and sanitary supplies. We\u2019ve got some temporary generators put in place so we can power community centres service stations and other facilities,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n SES commander Mark Cattell said the flood clean-up would take a few days.<\/p>\n