Retailers and customers at Fraser Cove were left in the dark yesterday, with some reportedly covering frozen food goods with blankets after power was cut off at the shopping centre.
About 8.30am a car crashed into a power pole then ended up in a ditch by the estuary on Fraser St,shutting off power to the complex. The driver of the car was shaken but unhurt.
Most centres were without electricity for up to 45 minutes. The traffic lights at Fraser Cove were also out.
Other parts of the centre are understood to have gone without power for up to three hours. Baljinder Girn and Amrita Minhas, who own Hot Spot Dairy, said the power cut was "terrible" for business.
"There were a lot of problems, like we couldn't open the till and eftpos was off. We could take cash but we couldn't give change," Mr Girn said.
Ms Minhas said she was resorting to giving change from her purse instead. Others were not so lucky.
"With that period of 30-45 minutes about seven to eight customers came in wanting to use eftpos," Ms Minhas said.
At hairdressers Salon One all things came to a halt.
"Everything was brought to a standstill," manager Chris Hamilton said.
The salon had 13 staff on including management "but no one could do anything".
Hair dryers, straighteners, payment systems, booking systems and lights were off and the computers only had 15 minutes worth of back-up.
"It was totally black in here," Ms Hamilton said.
"Then we had people coming in."
Customers booked in for appointments patiently waited while staff tried to figure out where their power had gone.
"The thing for us was we didn't know what had happened," Ms Hamilton said.
"We didn't know if it was a power company thing or power surge, because that has been happening a bit lately with all the road works."
