Power restored after storm causes outages

A Northpower linesman cuts a limb from a tree to enable downed lines to be repaired at Puhipuhi. Photo/John Stone

Power cut by Cyclone Lusi was expected to be restored to a small number of households in the Far North last night.

Top Energy staff were working to get power back on to 50 customers throughout the district yesterday afternoon and were expected to complete all work by about 9pm.

About 2400 homes in Kaikohe, Pukenui, Kaitaia, Taipa, Kawakawa and Okaihau were without electricity on Saturday.

Most of the damage was due to power lines clashing with trees in high winds.

More than 50 Top Energy staff worked round the clock to address the main problems.

In Whangarei and Kaipara, electricity to more than 2500 households was affected over the weekend but all repairs on power lines had been completed by Sunday morning.

Power was cut off to about 2000 homes in Hikurangi, Pataua, Ruakaka, McLeods Bay and Parua Bay on Saturday and 672 Northpower customers south of Ruakaka were affected yesterday.

The outage came after a large tree fell on lines.

Power was restored to most of the affected customers by Saturday evening.

Northpower network services manager Graham Dawson said the way the community had worked with staff to alert the lines company to outages had helped minimise blackout times.

"I have been in the field on Saturday with our lines crews and arborists. They've been exposed to fairly challenging conditions and they've done the job. So far, the Northpower network has held up well," he said.

Mr Dawson said Northpower customers should continue to report the potential cause of power outages on 0800-10-40-40.

Members of the public are still advised to remain clear of downed power lines.