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Home / New Zealand

2500 homes lose power

By Vomle Springford
Wairarapa Times-Age·
11 Sep, 2013 07:42 PM3 mins to read

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CRASHED: A truck was forced off the road by high winds on Paierau Rd just after 2pm yesterday. PHOTO/CHERIE TAYLOR

CRASHED: A truck was forced off the road by high winds on Paierau Rd just after 2pm yesterday. PHOTO/CHERIE TAYLOR

Vehicles were blown over, roofs were lifted off and power lines were down causing power cuts to thousands.

Severe gales gusting 120km/h caused power cuts all over Wairarapa from Whiterock to Masterton, with trees and debris tearing down overhead lines and breaking poles.

Masterton District Council said they were "inundated" with calls yesterday, mainly about fallen trees.

Electricity distributor Powerco warned people to stay away from any power lines brought down by the strong winds on Tuesday night. Up to 2500 homes were without power on Tuesday night and Powerco had managed to get power back to about 2000 homes by yesterday morning.

Phil Marsh, Powerco's network operations manager, said staff had been working around the clock, battling winds to fix the power lines.

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"There are currently around 500 properties spread around rural parts of Wairarapa without power and we expect to restore the majority of supply by the end of Wednesday, barring more severe weather," Mr Marsh said.

He urged members of the public to keep clear of any damaged lines and report them to Powerco on 0800 272727.

"Power lines that have fallen to the ground may look safe but they're very often still live.

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"Live lines can kill, keep yourselves, your children, pets and livestock well away from any downed lines and call Powerco."

Featherston fire chief Colin McKenna said they had been busy since Tuesday attending a variety of call-outs.

"We've had two calls on Tuesday afternoon, four Tuesday night and two this morning." He said the roof of a house almost flew off in Hayward St in Featherston. "When we arrived, the owners were on the roof already, trying to screw it back down."

The crew assisted the owners and managed to screw the roof back on.

Police and fire teams dealt with a number of weather related incidents yesterday and Tuesday.

Power lines were down all over the region with some lying across roads.

Gusts on the Rimutakas caused one lane to be blocked after a tree blew down on Tuesday night slowing traffic.

Wind also caused the driver of a ute to crash into a bank on the hill.

The driver wasn't injured and the damage was minor. Crew also rescued the cover of a swimming pool which had blown off. MetService weather forecaster Daniel Corbett said that at its peak, the wind reached 146km/h on the Rimutaka Hill but had dropped slightly to between 130km/h and 135km/h yesterday.

Although in Masterton the brunt of the front, crossing the country from the north-west, wasn't making quite an impact, below the ranges and in Featherston and Castlepoint, residents were being rocked by the high winds, Mr Corbett said.

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"It's pretty shocking, disgusting and horrible up and down the country."

The winds picked up speed off the ranges as it came down into the valleys, he said.

"As it bends back down off the ranges, a wave of air squeezes and bounces down picking up speed and making the wind faster."

By today, the winds should have eased back, the weather forecaster said.

"There will be a few showers over Thursday and Friday but all the wind, muck and mess should be gone," he said.

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