I SMS'd a friend in Brunswick at the time and he still had power, but The Glen shopping centre was out and their power didn't come on until well after 6pm. I'm told some of the state was still out this morning.
Update: My sister in Bruswick says they had no power from 4:30 to about 8pm.
It stays pretty cool inside our house on the first hot day but after two it's killer hot. Still just under 30 in the computer room though.
Apparently a bushfire cut a major line [The Age].
The mandatory power restrictions listed at the end of the article are pretty scary. Fine if I'm on holidays, but no air-conn at work would be a nightmare.
Everything on my holiday "to do" list requires power (or more specifically, mostly the computer or power tools).
So I did the dishes and listened to the radio. Moved food from the fridge to the freezer etc.
Thankfully I wasn't at work and didn't have to put up with no traffic lights in the city or slow trains in almost 40C heat.
It was exciting enough listening to the horns and skids outside as drivers struggled with the lack of lights.
This sort of thing probably happens all the time in other cities...