Tuesday’s dust storm over Lake Burley Griffin hid Telstra Tower. Photo: Ruwendi Wakwella.
Many Canberrans were left literally biting the dust yesterday as strong winds prompted a dust storm in the nation’s capital, leaving a trail of damage as it heads towards the south coast on Wednesday morning (13 February).
ACT State Emergency Service received 128 requests for assistance yesterday following damaging winds in the ACT after the storm tore down trees, felled power lines and damaged roofs.
The dust storm sparked an ACT Health warning, urging Canberrans to be wary of air quality which may lead to health complications.
There were also power outages across the territory with homes in Acton, Ainslie, City, Fraser, Fyshwick, Griffith, Hawker, Higgins, Kingston, Latham, Melba, Narrabundah, Page, Red Hill, Scullin, Spence, Turner, and Weetangera left without power for several hours.
At its peak, the storm saw nearly 6000 locals cut off from electricity, with traffic lights out and disruption to peak hour traffic on Tuesday afternoon. According to a 7 am update from Evoenergy, approximately 90 customers are without power this morning mainly in Curtin and Spence, with power expected to be back by midday.
Strong damaging winds were recorded across the ACT, with Mount Ginini at Namadgi recording a wind gust of 89 km/h at 3:20 pm while Canberra Airport recorded a top gust of 82km/h.
Paula Pidcock’s view from her flight over Canberra.
Julie Hope’s photo when she was travelling on the Hume near Gundagai.
Shannon Lister’s photo from Cooma.
Elizabeth Quinn’s view from Holt looking towards the Brindabellas.
Christopher Tuckwell could barely see Parliament House.
There was even dust hovering over Lake Bathurst. Photo by Ash Habres.
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