Gold Coast blackout

[DIEHARD]

Balloons cause massive Coast blackout

HELIUM balloons attached to a load of steel fencing wire headed for the Mudgeeraba Show caused the power blackouts that affected 11,000 Gold Coast and Beaudesert residents this afternoon.

Energex said the balloons, which were tied to the fencing wire on the back of a man's ute, came free, hit powerlines and caused damage which ultimately blacked out 11,000 homes, including Skilled Park and Robina Town Centre.

Power has been restored to all homes, according to Energex.

The Gold Coast Titans game which kicked off at 3pm was thrown into chaos for about half an hour after the blackout shut down ATMs, ticket outlets and turnstiles, as well as food and drink outlets.

Power came back on to the stadium at 2.30pm with staff working to clear the backlog at the ground's entrances.

Robina Town Centre also lost power for about half an hour.

Other affected suburbs were Bonogin, Gilston, Mudgeeraba, Reedy Creek, Tallai and Worongary.

The Mudgeeraba Agricultural Show was also affected with ATMs, refrigerators and the PA system shut down. Most of the rides had their own generators and operated through the outage.

Source: http://www.goldcoast.com.au

[DIEHARD]

I didn't witness it as I was handing out flyers outside the stadium, but I hear it was pretty nuts.

I feared that the Australian Power and Gas POWERSTAGE would be....unpowered!

[DIEHARD]

Picture of the line up at the match day Box Office during the blackout.

[DIEHARD]

Another

[shamus]

Did someone forget to put a generator on the quote when the stadium was tendered for?