Civil Defence director John Dragicevich says the public were well informed and the damage caused came as no surprise to him.
Five days after the big storm and some Aucklanders are still without power, heating - and in some cases water.
Coatesville banker Greg Young has had no power since 2pm on Tuesday. The family of five have lost hundreds of dollars in spoiled food. They have been forced to take Youngs' 3-year-old daughter to friends' houses just for a bath.
The Young family of Coatsville have been without power since Tuesday. Pictured are Grace, Jackie and Geneva Young. Photo / Supplied
A night of weather mayhem blasted Auckland on Tuesday with winds gusting up to 213km/h in the Manukau Heads.
The wind tore roofs from houses and uprooted trees that came crashing down on over 100 power lines across the region. At its peak 180,000 homes were without power.
Between 1500 to 2000 households are still without power due to continued poor weather and ongoing tree fall, a Vector spokeswoman said.
"Vector crews are still focusing on larger outages in some of the more remote communities that are often connected by long single lines through rugged bush, particularly around the West Coast and Northwest Coast areas of the city.
"Work to restore isolated power and hot water faults scattered around Auckland is also ongoing."
Trees crashed down on over 100 powerlines around Auckland in the Tuesday storm. Photo / Dean Purcell
Vector has released restoration times for power outages. Some locations - like Greenhithe, Devonport, Silverdale and Takapuna - may have to wait until next Sunday.
They would have had no power for almost two weeks at that stage.
If you're affected by Tuesday's storm, all @aklcouncil leisure centres are offering a hot shower for free, and somewhere to get warm and have a hot cup of tea or coffee. Leisure centre locations: https://t.co/HrvgTgZWFIpic.twitter.com/o1AGmT5Mh4
Young was frustrated with the lack of communication they had had from Vector.
"If we had known earlier that this would be so long we would have hired a generator. We wouldn't have lost all our food and had some water.
"They keep saying it'll be on tomorrow, then tomorrow. They say Tuesday it is now, but who knows."
The family have been told the power will be back on by Tuesday. As they are on tank water they don't have any running water or sewage system. They've escaped the inconvenience by heading to their bach in Mangawhai this weekend.
Jackie and Greg Young. Greg wanted an inquiry to ensure power restoration does not take this long again. Photo / Norrie Montgomery
Young's 14-year-old daughter and au pair had gone to stay with friends since Friday.
They weren't looking forward to dealing with all the spoiled food in the fridge and freezer. Young estimated they had over $500 of food in their large standalone freezer alone,including some very expensive cuts of meat.
"Everything in the fridge has gone. We'd just done a big shop so all that fresh stuff is gone.
"I'm not so stressed about that, all that's stuff replaceable but it's big inconvenience to go to work and to be able to wash your kids is nice.
"It is difficult having a 3-year-old, there's no food in the house, we can't cook anything or wash or anything like that. But she's OK. Little kids take it in their stride."
Supermarkets had to throw away massive amounts of food due to the power cut. Photo / Supplied
Young wanted to see a local government inquiry into the response to the storm.
"This is not right it's taken this long. It should not happen again.
"Is it a lack of investment in infrastructure? Is it a lack of maintenance? If their lines do have overhanging trees why is that not managed?"
Royal Oak man Paulson Titus has also been without power since Tuesday. He has been travelling 40 minutes to his friend's house in Papatoetoe for a shower.
"If they gave us a time we can plan ahead but they are saying on the phone gives time like 6pm but then nothing happens.
"This is very hard for us. We don't know what to do."
Today Titus will wash his uniform by hand in cold water as he prepares for work tomorrow. He believed Vector was too slow.
"Even in third world countries or war torn countries the Government tries to bring power back as soon as possible. But here we don't have any eta we're just sitting here waiting but nothing happening.
"They're just taking it easy but it's not easy on the other people."
Visit the Vector website for a full list of estimated restoration times.
