Northpower now has more than 100 staff in the field assessing storm damage and implementing repairs due to the worst storm the network has experienced in the past seven years.
Field staff numbers in Whangarei have been doubled today and crew numbers in the Kaipara District have been increased significantly with Northpower staff arriving from the company's Tauranga, Matamata, Hamilton and Warkworth depots.
About 6500 Northpower customers are currently without power across the Kaipara and Whangarei Districts as Northpower prepares to undertake its second aerial inspection of the day, this time at Whangarei Heads. The chopper earlier located the cause of faults which was trees through lines in the Kaipara District.
While the company is hoping to have power outages reduced to the low thousands by later this evening, it warns that many locals will be without power for a second night.
However, some crews will continue working late into the night to try and maximise restoration. Outages are likely to remain into the weekend for some people.