Storm damage, power outages close schools
The IEU is urging staff and students to take care after destructive storms left hundreds of thousands of Victorians without power on Tuesday February 13, and closed many non-government schools.
On Wednesday morning the full extent of school closures was only just becoming apparent, as interrupted communications meant details were hard to confirm.
IEU Assistant General Secretary Kylie Busk had spoken to DOSCEL, which covers many schools in the east of the state where damage has been widespread and the Loy Yang A power station was shut down by the storm damage.
“They have a large number of schools closed today as a result of having no power, no phone systems and unreliable mobile coverage.”
“The priority advice for IEU members is to make safety your priority. If it’s not yet safe for you to travel due to downed trees or powerlines, stay home and try to communicate that to your school. If you need to be home due to your children's school being closed that should be accommodated. You also may be eligible to Natural Disaster Leave if your home has been impacted.”
DOSCEL is contacting its Principals about school closures, though the absence of mobile coverage and internet in some regions is making it difficult to reach every school.
In some regions, contact could not be made until after buses had left with students so alternative supervision arrangements are being put in place unless parents could be contacted.
Schools reported by ABC Radio as closed include:
Assumption College, Kilmore
St Pats College, Ballarat
St Mary’s College, Seymour
Tintern Grammar, Ringwood East
Killester College, Springvale
Bayside Christian College, Langwarrin
Billanook College, Mooroolbark
Harkaway Hills College, Harkaway
St Andrews Christian College, Wantirna South
Salesian College, Chadstone
Mater Christi College, Belgrave
St Brigid’s Primary School, Healesville
St Patricks Primary School, Murrumbeena
Newhaven College, Philip Island
Jason McManus, acting Principal of Tintern Grammar, said his school had communicated their school closure to parents at 6am.
He told ABC local radio he was “very confident” everyone in the school community got the message because Tintern uses a cloud-based SMS system.
Tintern students will be learning from home today using the school’s learning management system. He anticipated some difficulties with staff whose internet is down at home because of ongoing power outages. However, Tintern would be “trying to do business as usual”.
Wayne Smith, Principal of St Mary’s College, Seymour described the situation in his region as “organised chaos”. St Mary’s managed to inform parents the school would be closed today this morning via Facebook.
“There’s not much we can do, unfortunately.” He said students who had gone to school would be supervised and the school was hoping to return to full operations on site tomorrow.
Some St Mary’s staff have been unable to get to school because the power outage has stopped service stations from providing fuel to motorists.
At Newhaven College on Philip Island, a handful of students are on site, but the school is trying “all and any means” to get the message out to parents that the school is shut today because it has no power and no phone service and is “unable to operate safely”. The College turned back parents dropping off students and managed to contact most bus operators in time. A few children were returned home by buses that only got the message at the school gate. Most of Philip Island appears to have no power.
At 10.am, it was estimated 285,000 homes were still without power. Over 530,000 had their power cut at the peak of the outage.
Every major telecommunications carrier has been affected by the outages.
Victorians are urged to take care, stay calm and remain cooperative in affected neighbourhoods while authorities work to restore power and make affected roads and buildings safe.
At 11.30am, the Premier Jacinta Allan said the state was still in the “emergency phase” and assessment of the extent of the damage wrought by the storm was still being undertaken.
Emergency Management Commissioner Rick Nugent said power might not be restored in some areas for up to a week. He said this was the most destructive storm “in years and years” and it would take time to safely assess all the affected localities, understand the extent of the damage and work out how many people are affected.