Lee Millar's suburb of Moil was left without power for seven days after Cyclone Marcus ripped through Darwin in 2018.
Her family was lucky enough to have a generator so they could continue running the fans, but others in her street weren't so fortunate.
With more intense cyclones expected in coming decades, the Northern Territory government has today allocated $60 million over six years to bury more of Darwin's overhead power lines underground.
It is part of the government's plan to future-proof the city following Cyclone Marcus, which brought down at least 500 power lines and left more than 28,500 people without power.
However, Ms Millar — who has lived through Top End cyclones since the mid-1970s — said she had heard government pledges about underground power for nearly as long.
The Darwin suburbs that still have overhead powerlines are Alawa, Wagaman, Nakara, Moil, Jingili, Coconut Grove, Ludmilla, Fannie Bay, Parap, Narrows, the Gardens, Stuart Park and Larrakeyah.
So far, the Territory government has completed undergrounding of power at eight schools in Darwin, with a final school, St John's College, due to be completed in the dry season.
Essential Services Minister Eva Lawler said the first stage of the project would involve the burying of high voltage lines along main arterial roads in Darwin, such as Bagot Road.
Design for the high voltage network is scheduled to start next month, with the first stage due to be completed by 2028.
The second stage will have workers move low voltage lines underground along residential streets, before the third stage when those lines will be connected to homes.
Ms Lawler said the $60 million would only cover the first stage of the project along main roads.
The total cost was closer to $200 million, she said.
However, Ms Lawler said that first "high voltage" stage would significantly reduce the time it takes to get power back in the suburbs after a cyclone.
Belinda Small, senior manager of network planning and design for Power and Water, said "what this means for the customers is shorter outages for fewer people, following severe weather events".
Cyclone Marcus 'taught us lessons'
As the impacts of global warming accelerate, Australians can expect fewer — but more intense — tropical cyclones in coming decades, according to the Bureau of Meteorology and CSIRO's 2020 State of the Climate report.
Simon Quilty, a medical doctor and ANU researcher in Alice Springs, said that was why building smart infrastructure in Darwin was "absolutely essential".
"Talking about this problem as if it's new in 2022 shows that there's been an awful lot of inaction over the years to future-proof Darwin."
Dr Quilty said the government's plan to bury overhead power lines in Darwin suburbs was "well and truly overdue".
"Watching the damage of trees falling on power lines during Cyclone Marcus really demonstrated to everybody that overhead telegraph lines can be problematic," he said.
Kamal Debnath, an electrical engineer lecturer at Charles Darwin University, said underground cables were appropriate in Darwin given it was a "cyclone-prone area".
"On the negative side, underground cables are very expensive — maybe 10 times or more," he said.
Another downfall, he said, was that faults were harder to detect in underground cables compared to overhead lines.
"If there is a fault in the underground cable, it takes time and effort to repair it," Mr Debnath said.
"You need to dig the whole area up."
In the eyes of Ms Millar, though, the benefits far outweigh the disadvantages.
"That's the way things are going now," she said.
"Underground is better."
