More than 700,000 caught up in power crisis

Pedestrians struggle against high winds on Auckland's Quay St. Picture / Dean Purcell

More than 700,000 people were affected when power was cut to thousands of Auckland homes yesterday and hundreds of businesses were forced to close.

This is how the day unfolded.

FIRE

The Fire Service attended more than 230 incidents, including calls to deal with fallen powerlines, trees across roads and windows blown out of buildings.

Dozens of people were trapped in lifts, including nine in Westpac Towers in Albert St between floors 19 and 22.

Fire Service Communications Centre switched to Mips - multiple incident procedures - about 9.15am to deal with the workload as fire alarms went off all over the city.

Each alarm had to be treated as genuine with an engine sent to each address.

Extra staff were called in to take 111 calls, of which about 100 had been received by midday.

POLICE

Auckland City police mobilised their district emergency management plan for the first time since the 1998 power crisis.

All but two of the city's police stations lost power and shut.

Acting Auckland City Police District Commander Detective Superintendent Gavin Jones said police had a responsibility to maintain street safety, public safety and to attend priority one jobs.

While no extra staff were called in, desk-bound staff were sent into the streets.

No serious incidents were reported as a result of the power cuts.

EDUCATION

AUT shut its city campus, sending thousands of students home just as a week of exams began.

Students sitting exams were told to lay down their pens and go home.

"It was pretty crazy," said bachelor of business student Andrew Marriner.

"I was right into it, pretty happy with what was covered in the paper so I was a bit disappointed."

AUT spokeswoman Sandy Eriksen said exams would be rescheduled and the university would be back to normal today.

Auckland University also postponed exams.

Auckland Grammar School and some primary schools sent pupils home but Auckland Girls Grammar kept going in darkened classrooms as did Avondale College.

Principal Brent Lewis said staff decided the most responsible action was to keep students at school.

Dark areas were closed off but information technology classes required some imagination.

"We've got some very talented teachers and they used their skills to the max," he said.

At Bayfield Early Education Centre, around 80 Herne Bay preschoolers were kept warm by gas heaters.

"Staff were missing their hot drinks but apart from that it was just another day for us," said spokeswoman Shona Hewitt.

TRANSPORT

Trains stopped stranding hundreds of commuters when the automatic signalling system had to be switched over to manual.

Plenty elected to walk. One woman who got off at Mt Eden and walked to Khyber Pass Rd where she hailed a taxi reported the driver waived the full fare because she didn't have enough cash.

Dozens of Waiheke commuters were stranded when ferry sailings were cancelled. Fullers' Waiheke 7.15am sailing had to turn around and come back to Auckland because of rough seas.

Sailings resumed to Waiheke in the early afternoon but not all scheduled sailings departed.

AIRPORT

Auckland Airport was able to operate throughout the storm because it has its own separate electricity generator system to keep critical systems such as runway lights and aircraft navigation going.

No international flights were cancelled but some domestic flights were delayed by weather. Christchurch Airport was closed because of snow.

"We were able to continue operating but it was rather dim in some parts of the terminal," said airport spokesman Don Hughes.

TRAFFIC

Police described the scene at some Auckland's intersections as lunacy when around 300 traffic lights failed just after 8.30am.

Few pointsmen were posted in the inner city but some were assigned to big intersections. A Grey Lynn motorist took the situation in hand by leaping out of his car and directing traffic in torrential rain.

Most motorists behaved courteously, waving vehicles through as lines of cars nosed cautiously through intersections.

TELEPHONE, INTERNET

Some internet and broadband customers had problems as the power went off, sparking a flood of calls to call centres.

ihug reported its call centre had some overloading problems while CallPlus/Slingshot spokeswoman Sue Evans said the company had had 2000 calls by 4pm.

Customers with problems were advised to restart their modem or computer.

WEATHER

MetService forecaster Chris Noble said winds gusted to 130km/h in the outer Hauraki Gulf and 100km/h in the Waitemata Harbour while Auckland Airport recorded gusts of around 80km/h.

The clouds lifted just before midday in the city but residents face a big chill today with the southerly blast that blanketed the South Island in snow yesterday forecast to travel north overnight.

Snow was expected to close the Desert Road today and possibly the road over the Rimutakas north of Wellington.

The cause of the wintry weather in both North and South Islands was a deep low pressure system passing over the country with two associated frontal systems, one bringing the southerly blast to the South Island and the other stormy weather to the North Island.

COURT

People milled around outside the Auckland District Court from about 9am, two tiny electric lights flickering on the ceiling.

Employees from Schindler Lifts freed one woman who became trapped in the one of the building's lifts when the power failed.

"It's been a hell of a morning," said a registrar.

Many people asked why the court did not have back-up generators.

Lawyer Maria Pecotic remembered the blackouts in 1998 when a criminal call-over to set trial dates for accused was carried out by torchlight.

Hundreds of defendants on yesterday's lists were remanded and a makeshift court was set up in the foyer.

A District Court registrar gave defendants new dates to appear, while Judge Josephine Bouchier and Judge Anne Kiernan were sent to the Auckland Police Station to deal with defendants being held in custody.

Nearly 50 defendants appeared in two makeshift courtrooms in the Auckland Police Station training room in the cell block.