EDITORIAL: Sudden storm finds Auckland's power exposed

After a long hot summer that began unusually early, the first breath of winter arrived with a vengeance. The storm that blew through Auckland from the southwest overnight caused the city to awake to devastation yesterday.

Many homes were without electricity, gales and falling trees having brought down overhead lines. Traffic lights and Bank ATMs were not working. Some cellphone towers were knocked out, putting additional load on those remaining and slowing mobile phone connections.

By noon about a quarter of properties were still waiting for their power to be restored. Some of them were schools that had to close for the day. The lines company Vector says it could take several days to repair its network and get the power back on for everyone.

It may be an early taste of what winter has in store now that climate change is upon us.

Extremes of weather were predicted and New Zealand has certainly enjoyed an extremely good summer. April seems too early for the northeasterly weather to give way to the southwester that moved up the country on Tuesday.

That was the 50th anniversary of the Wahine disaster caused by a storm that, typical of those during summer, came from a tropical cyclone.

If the overnight gales and the chill in Auckland's air yesterday is a sign of what the city can expect this winter, it ought to be causing the providers of essential services to consider some precautions.

The large number of properties that lost power — said to be about a quarter of the city — is a cause for concern. Overhead power lines are extremely vulnerable in gales of the magnitude that had buildings swaying and house windows flexing that night.

It is just as well the storm hit at a time few were out in the streets. Live wires would have been a hazard.

How much safer our cities would be if power lines were underground. It would be an expensive project for the Auckland region but those households without power yesterday morning, and particularly those still waiting for it to be restored, might consider undergrounding was worth a small additional charge on their power bills.

Many would say it is high time power lines were buried for visual reasons as much as safety and security in bad weather.

A modern country should not still have overhead cable strung along its streets. And its residents should not be sitting in the dark, resorting to torches and candles and lacking electricity for heating and cooking, when a gale is blowing.

Trees falling on power lines were not the only problem. Vector also reported damage to its larger infrastructure. Its communications also failed when residents were trying to report outages. Clearly the company has some climate change preparations to make.

But no review of an event such is this should ignore those who went out during the night to do what they could to repair storm damage, clear roads and restore power supplies where it was possible on the night.

Nobody was prepared for winds quite as strong as they were but a more accurate storm warning would not have made much difference. It takes time to prepare to withstand weather like that and the time to start those preparations is probably now.