Power crews praised for 'mammoth effort' as electricity restored to all but 110 homes

Top Energy linemen repair powerlines brought down by a pine tree on Wiroa Rd near Kerikeri. Photo / Peter de Graaf

At the peak of the weekend's storm about 23,000 homes across Northland lost power, with 17,000 of those in the area covered by Far North lines company Top Energy.

Of the 6000 households affected in Whangārei and Kaipara, about 175 — in Tangowahine, Kaiwaka, Brynderwyn, Omana, Tinopai and Parua Bay — still had no power on Sunday night.

Fifty were still cut off at 4pm yesterday but Northpower spokeswoman Rachel Wansbone expected all would be reconnected by nightfall yesterday.

The worst-hit areas were on the west coast and at Whangārei Heads.

In the Far North, some households in the most isolated areas may have to wait longer to get power restored.

In one case linemen will have to carry their gear and go in on foot; in another heavy machinery is being used to make an access track.

As of 5.30pm yesterday 110 Far North homes still had no power, mostly in North Hokianga and Herekino, south of Ahipara.

Top Energy chief executive Russell Shaw said it was the biggest outage in the 14 years he'd been in the job.

He put that down to ''incredible'' wind strength, which crews measured gusts of 144km/h.

''When I went out you couldn't stand up the wind was that strong — and we had line crews out in that. It's a real balance between their safety and making the network safe. If a tree's come down there's a fairly good chance the one next to it will be next.''

Half of all households in the Far North lost power during the "short, sharp" storm.

By 11pm on Sunday all but 1200 had their power restored, Shaw said.

''It was just a mammoth effort, we had half our customers cut off. I could not be more proud of them. I know it's a huge inconvenience for people but these guys could not have done any more.''

Shaw said the company had tried to keep customers informed over Facebook. Positive comments for the line crews had been collated and filled 90 pages.