Power 'back on by tonight'

Powerco employees at work. File photo / Mark Mitchell

There are still around 3500 houses in the North Island without power, but electricity company Powerco is saying everyone should be back on stream by tonight.

The day started with about 5500 houses without power, in the wake of the severe storm which has lashed the country with gale force winds, snow and rain for the last two days.

Powerco said it had more than 100 staff out across the central North Island working on repairs to its electricity network.

Network operations manager Phil Marsh said the storm eased last night with only a couple of sections of the network sustaining damage early this morning.

"We have an army of field staff out there working today.... and expect to get the vast majority of those people (without power) back on by the end of the day."

Those currently without power are spread across the Thames/Coromandel region, western Bay of Plenty, south Waikato, Taranaki, Wanganui, Manawatu and Wairarapa.

There were also hundreds of isolated faults from blown pole fuses to downed service and low voltage lines affecting small numbers of customers across the company's areas of operation.

The storm cut power to around 54,000 of the company's customers since noon on Friday and it has warned people to keep well away from downed overhead lines and any other damaged network equipment.

The company was also working Federated Farmers to restore power so dairy farmers in the affected areas could milk their cows, many of which had missed two to three milkings, Mr Marsh said.

- NZPA