A team from Essential Energy almost needed life jackets while doing urgent repairs to a power pole in the Hawks Nest area yesterday and today.

Essential Energy responded to a call at about 1pm on Wednesday 31 July from a community member who was concerned about the precarious power pole at the intersection of The Boulevard and Kururma Crescent, Hawks Nest.

A crew member from Bulahdelah attended to assess the situation before bringing in a crane to safely secure the pole after noticing a rapid level of erosion and a 2-3 metre swell on the adjacent beach.

Between 1pm and 6pm, large seas had eroded about six metres of coastline, placing the pole in need of an emergency rescue operation as waves lapped at the base of the pole.

To ensure public safety, power to the pole was isolated, impacting 97 customers before the power pole was completely disconnected and removed. Crews returned to the location this morning (Thursday 1 August) to relocate the pole across the road.

All but nine customers remained without electricity overnight before power was fully restored to all customers on Thursday morning.

Essential Energy’s Mid North Coast Operations Manager Rob Ridley said quick thinking prevented the pole from further damage and the potential for a longer power outage for the community.

“We’ve had a lot of rain and very big seas recently, so we really appreciate when the community spots a potential issue on our network,” said Rob.

“In this case, we were able to safely isolate the power supply and move the pole to a more secure location while only impacting a small number of customers.”