By JUSTIN FLYNN
KINGSTON Estate residents shivered through an uncomfortably cold night this week after their gas was cut.
They were left with no gas heating or hot water as the mercury plummeted to five degrees by 7pm on Tuesday with a wind-chill factor of around minus three.
By early Wednesday morning it was four degrees with an apparent wind chill temperature of minus five.
Angry residents swamped their gas supplier AusNet with phone calls and emails during the outage.
It wasn’t the first time the estate has had its gas supply cut as demand outstripped supply during colder days and nights.
Some residents reported no interruption to their services, but others said it was the second time they had experience an outage.
AusNet confirmed there was a sporadic loss of services on the night.
“Demand is growing significantly in the region and after the first issue we increased the pressure in the pipes upstream that supply Ocean Grove,” Hugo Armstrong, spokesman for AusNet services said.
“The pipes come through Geelong and demand in that area could have consumed some demand for Ocean Grove.
“For a short while at the peak time, a small number of customers reported low pressure. We apologise to customers who were inconvenienced.”
Some people kept warm with electric or wood heating, but those with gas heating and hot water had to improvise with blankets and huddling together to beat the chill.
Tareeda Way resident Tracey Wright said her house was unbearable as a strong cold front swept up from the south on Tuesday afternoon and passed through during the night and Wednesday.
“It eventually came back on after 10pm but before that it was useless turning the ducted heating on because it was only blowing out cold air,” she said.
“Twice in a month is not good enough.”
Corey Howard said his house was without gas until late Tuesday night.
“We were without any heating and hot water until about 9.45pm,” he said.
“Our only heating is gas ducted and we don’t have a split system.”
Cathy Rundle of Inglewood Lane said the outage caused disruptions in her house.
“The children and myself were not able to be bathed/showered – it was a cold, cold, cold house,” she said.
Nicole Dodson lives in Daintree Way and was also affected, saying she had no hot water to bathe her young sons.
Kristy Russell of Penleigh Crescent said she was still being affected the following night.
“The kids and husband missed out on showers last night, and now I’ve just started to prepare dinner and have no gas whatsoever – not impressed at all,” she said.
In Heathwood Way, Meisha Bate said she had to add extra blankets on her three-month-old daughter after her house had no central heating and that her construction-worker husband could not shower after arriving home late from work.
