KEY POINTS:
The state of emergency in the Far North has been lifted, as the council and welfare groups change focus from emergency management to clean-up and recovery in the wake of the floods which have devastated the region.
The civil emergency status was declared on Tuesday after heavy rain and winds up to 150km/h lashed Northland, Auckland and the Coromandel on Tuesday and Wednesday, leaving up to $60 million damage in their wake.
Far North District Council spokeswoman Alison Lees told NZPA the state of emergency was lifted at 3pm today.
This morning about two homes were without power, six roads closed and eight with limited access, she said.
There were no isolated communities in the Far North district and essential services such as sewage treatment and water treatment were functioning.
Ms Lees said staff from the council, Housing New Zealand, and Work and Income would be out door knocking over the weekend to find out the welfare needs of the region's residents.
"We will be finding out if they are insured, whether they are facing financial hardship.
"It's a lot of data collection and assessment to ensure people are looked after."
The door knocking reflected the civil defence operations were now in recovery mode as the emphasis shifted from emergency management to social welfare and clean-up operations, she said.
Army personnel left the district last night after carrying out provision drops by Unimog yesterday and two helicopters deployed for the same task had also left the district with the last provision drop being made to Kaeo this morning, she said.
The council was confident that every isolated family in need has received the supplies required to ensure comfort and safety, she said.
About 70 homes were uninhabitable in the region , she said.
Large rubbish skips would be placed in the worst hit communities, for the immediate disposal of food which had gone off in fridges and freezers in homes without power, she said.
A Taskforce Green team was on its way to the worst hit area of Kaeo to help with clean-up operations and a second team was expected in the Far North next week.
Rates postponement for badly affected properties would be offered by the council to assist those who faced financial hardship as a result of the floods, she said.
Whangarei District Council said it would provide free disposal of spoiled frozen food at each of its refuse transfer stations until the end of July 22.
A council spokeswoman said water services were believed to be restored to all areas of Whangarei .
Power was restored to about 25,000 consumers after gale force winds and heavy rainfall caused multiple outages on Powerco's electricity network on the Coromandel Peninsula, Hauraki Plains and Piako areas on Tuesday.
Electricity supply was restored to the majority of urban areas on the peninsula on Wednesday and more customers were connected yesterday.
About 1000 properties remained without power, with some homes not expected to have their power restored before the weekend.
Powerco network operations manager Ross Dixon said the severe weather caused multiple outages with trees and broken branches causing lines and poles to break.
Field crews had made steady progress and had completed the majority of repairs to the high voltage network and were now working through a large list of individual customer repairs spread right across the affected area, he said.
"There are significantly more sites affected, as many of the damaged areas we have identified through our helicopter surveying are in remote hill country well away from homes and we are aware many of the holiday homes will be empty."
About 110 people were working on restoring the power as soon as possible, he said.
Mr Dixon said linemen had to tramp into some areas with ladders and equipment because slips had closed access tracks and there were no safe landing areas for helicopters.
"Powerco's immediate focus is on ensuring the safety of the public and our field crews."
People were advised to keep clear of overhead lines and treat them as live and report them to Powerco immediately, he said.
Vector said it was working to restore hot water to about 1000 of its customers on the North Shore.
Vector spokesman Keith FitzPatrick said crews would be working through day and night and the weekend to fully restore the pilot wire cable network which controlled hot water cylinders.
It was expected that the majority of homes should have the hot water restored on the North Shore later today or tomorrow morning, he said.
"We urge customers to wait until tomorrow morning to see if their hot water has been restored before calling and registering hot water faults.
"If a customer is still without hot water on Saturday morning, they should then phone their electricity retailer to report that they have no hot water."
In some individual cases, it could take all weekend to get hot water restored to some houses, he said.
At the peak of the storm damage Vector had 141,000 customers with no power, he said.
- NZPA
