Sydney power outage hits
Australian Fashion Week
SYDNEY, April 28, 2009 (AFP) -
Australian Fashion Week ground to a halt, workers had to be
evacuated and people were trapped in lifts on Tuesday 28 April
after a power failure in central Sydney.
An aerial view of Sydney.
Australian Fashion
Week ground to a halt, workers had to be evacuated and
people were trapped in lifts after a power failure in central
Sydney (AFP/File/Torsten Blackwood)
Hundreds of expectant guests were
gathered at the harbourside for an Australian Fashion Week show
when the lights went out, the third major outage to hit Sydney in a
month.
"I'm just glad it didn't happen
during the show," designer Nicky Zimmermann told Australian
Associated Press.
Businesses in the city's north
were blacked out for almost an hour after a fault in a major power
supply cable triggered an automatic switch-off just after the
morning rush, authorities said.
Traffic was also disrupted as
dozens of traffic lights failed and police said they had to rescue
workers from lifts in two city office blocks, while 400 staff were
evacuated from a third.
In late March a widespread
blackout plunged the city into peak-hour chaos for more than two
hours, forcing the cancellation of shows at the iconic Opera
House.
Energy Australia spokeswoman Kylie
Yates said a fault in the automatic shut-down equipment was to
blame.
"This equipment is designed to
shut down a part of the electricity network when a fault occurs,
and this equipment is shutting down a wider area than we would
expect," Yates said.
"So that's something we're
investigating, and have been investigating as a
priority."