***Information is current as of 3.30pm, Wednesday 13 July***

Hydro Tasmania is working round-the-clock to restore power to about 500 affected customers on King Island.

Heavy storms lashed the island overnight (Tuesday night, 12 July), bringing down trees and damaging poles and wires.

Hydro Tasmania’s Bass Strait Islands Manager, Brad Turner, said about 500 of the island’s 1 200 energy customers lost power overnight.

“Our 10 King Island employees are working very hard to restore power as quickly as possible, and we’ve brought in people from mainland Tasmania and Flinders Island to support them,” Mr Turner said.

“We expect to restore supply to about half of those 500 affected customers by tonight.

“However, it’s likely that the remaining 250 customers, particularly in and around the township of Grassy, will be without power for a second night.

“We’ve actively prioritised restoring power to several dairy farms to help protect the island’s livestock and economy. A prolonged outage beyond 24 hours poses a risk to the health and safety of livestock.

“Residents of King Island are reminded to treat any fallen electricity poles and wires as live, and not attempt to handle them.

“For any electricity emergencies, please call TasNetworks fault centre on 132004. High call volumes may cause some delays.

“We appreciate the patience and co-operation of affected King Island residents, and are working as efficiently as possible to restore power to all customers,” Mr Turner said.

Ends.