Expect Power To Stay Off Tonight

By John Freer

Nearly 5000 homes are expected to be without power tonight following extensive weather relayed damage to the Powerco electricity network.

Areas affected include Whangamata, Onemana, Opoutere and Whiritoa. Power was lost around midnight as winds gusting up to 150kph hit the coastal areas from Opoutere to Tauranga.

This afternoon Powerco’s head of Network Operations, Mark Dunn, said people should prepare to be without power overnight Sunday.

Mark said crews were working as quickly and safely as they can to make repairs and restore supply to thousands of customers.

“We know it’s hard to be without power and we will do everything we can to get as many customers restored as quickly as possible, but this storm has caused damage in a lot of different locations. For that reason, it’s important that, if you are affected by an outage because of storm damage, you prepare to be without power overnight,” said Mark.

“While we have had extra crews join the restoration today, we have multiple poles and lines down in several locations. We will be doing all we can with the technology we have in place to minimise the outage areas, however, we will need time to make repairs to physical damage such as restringing long sections of broken lines.”

There are three main areas impacting the south-eastern peninsula supply. There are 1,090 customers north and south-west of Whangamatā who have been without power since 12.13am due to trees through lines and broken power poles on Tairua Rd near Julian Rd.

Another 3,719 customers between Whangamatā and Whiritoa lost power just after midnight. Crews patrolling the 33kV line running from Waihi to Whangamatā have found a 600m span of line has come down in a particularly rugged area. Generation has meant Whangamatā’s CBD has been able to remain powered.

Further north in Onemana, 146 customers are without supply after a pine tree fell onto lines.

Thames Coromandel Emergency Management Controller, Brian Carter, has indicated that tonight’s temperature should sit around 10 degrees – if people need, he encouraged another blanket on the bed.

Brian also asked that people be careful with candles, flame, and gas heaters. Also, he raised the matter of food safety with fridges and freezers warming up. He said all the council’s systems were working.

He said if people needed assistance for life threatening situations, they should phone 111 for other enquires the Council’s phone line is manned 24-hours.