The silence of a powerless fridge and its wasted contents is eating away at the residents of Florida, Discovery and the surrounds. With electricity off since late on Saturday, residents are sitting with a bitter taste in their mouths.
Authorities claim that work is being done in earnest to remedy the situation, but frustrated residents are slowly losing patience. The Saturday night storm severely damaged the Nursery Substation roof which in turn damaged electrical components that were left exposed. “On the 6.6kV feeder board, a flash-over occurred causing damage to the equipment,” confirmed City Power spokesperson, Isaac Mangena.
The roof plays an important part in protecting the infrastructure, and power can not be fully restored until repairs to the roof are complete. As of Monday evening, progress on the roof was said to be at the halfway stage, with Ward 70 councillor Caleb Finn stating, “The guys are making good progress. The teams are working hard and I can see progress on site.”
A fuming public have bombarded both Councillor Finn and City Power with enquiries and requests, as well as attempted to check progress at the site with their own eyes. “Please can I kindly request that residents not flock to the substation as it places additional pressure on the technical staff who need to concentrate on their work. The same goes for everyone trying to phone the Depot Manager; it merely slows things down,” pleaded the sympathetic councillor.
MMC Mpho Morane will visit the site this afternoon and barring any unforeseen challenges, residents can expect to have power restored in the next 24 hours. “We anticipate that power will be restored by Wednesday morning, 4 November, if all goes according to plan,” stated spokesperson Mangena.
Even if the expect timeframe is met, little can be done to save the wasted food and loss of productivity.
