3 months ago
26
A Perth family spent nearly two days in the dark after a storm tore through Perth on Sunday, losing $900 worth of shopping and forced to spend the nights in their car to keep warm as temperatures plummeted.
Karly White and her son lost power at their Medina home during the severe weather as power poles toppled, and spent the next 40 hours without it.
Some of the damage outside the White residence. Credit: 9News Perth
Calls to Western Power provided no answers on when it would be restored.
“No answers, no info, no care – it hurt, it’s devastating,” White said.
“We’re a first world country, no one should have to go through that.
“At 24 hours I called Western Power and begged in tears for anything.”
The day before the storm hit, White had done a months worth of food shopping – all now ruined and in the bin.
The lack of heating left the mother and son duo so cold they spent their nights in their car with the heating on to stay warm.
Power was restored at 11am on Tuesday, with Western Power telling 9News Perth that a branch had become tangled with White’s service wire.
“Crews had to disconnect power to make the hazard safe,” they said.
“Customers who have experienced an outage for longer than 12 hours can apply for an extended outage payment.”
But White said the $120 you could claim “wasn’t covering it”.
