Severe thunderstorms cut power to Broken Hill, in far west NSW, and surrounding remote communities on October 17, 2024, with black-outs of up to 30 hours followed by extended periods of low voltage power.
Residents have called for better back-up energy and communications systems during a state parliamentary inquiry examining the outages.
The biggest concern during the black-outs was the loss of phone services, Business Far West NSW's Rosie Siemer told the inquiry on Thursday.
"Anything can go wrong, it's life threatening, absolutely life threatening," Ms Siemer said.Â
"And to ... not even be able to call triple zero is frightening."
Telstra's submission to the inquiry said there was a loss of mains power to 32 mobile and exchange sites, while its battery back-ups were depleted due to the lengthy outages.
Field crews worked 24-hour shifts to deliver and re-fuel generators to restore operation, the telco said.
One man told the inquiry the first black-out interrupted his at-home kidney dialysis, leaving him to adjust a needle in pitch dark.
"That was scary," the man wrote in his submission.
Others wrote of waking up in the night gasping for air when their sleep apnoea machines suddenly switched off.
One woman lost $7000 worth of medication when a generator powering a chemist's refrigerator was stolen.
Several people described hundreds of dollars worth of food rotting in their fridges during 36C heat.
"The power went off-and-on for 10 days for hours at a time and I worried so many times about the electrical appliances coping," a grandmother wrote.
"It saddens me to think that nobody gave a crap about Broken Hill.
"So many families here struggle to feed their families with the price of food, not just here, but we were made to feel inferior to big cities."
The NSW government offered $200 payments for people affected by the outages, along with vouchers for fuel and food.
Homes and businesses experienced varying levels of voltage for days, known as "brown outs", sparking explosions in fridges, computer monitors and cash registers.
Perilya's metals mine lost power and communications, which resulted in the failure of remote systems that monitor rising water levels.
About 500 employees had to be temporarily stood down, while their pay could not be processed.
Ms Siemer said small businesses were still recovering from the outages, which stopped visitors coming to town.
"With the lack of the workers on the mine, the lack of the economy, it meant that Christmas was very quiet for Broken Hill," she said.
"Business owners are still flat out from this power outage."
The inquiry committee is due to hand its report to the government by May.
