'We've never seen wind like it'

POWER TO PEOPLE: Tenix and Powerco's Dennis Rose (right) with Ken Pattie, are kept busy at the Tenix hub in Masterton, dealing with outages all over Wairarapa. Photo / VOMLE SPRINGFORD

It doesn't seem like a busy place from the outside but inside Tenix headquarters, it's a hive of activity.

Staff at electrical contractor Tenix are working hard co-ordinating linesmen to deal with the massive amount of power cuts caused by severe gales.

To get the lights back on, linesmen have been dodging flying debris and battling gales since Tuesday.

While some linesmen are used to 100km/h winds - "a little puff", this was unprecedented, said Dennis Rose, Tenix field service manager for Wairarapa.

Gusts of up to 146km/h caused carnage in Wairarapa cutting power to about 2500 homes in the middle of the week.

Mr Rose said the winds were equal to those in 1968's Wahine storm.

"We've never seen wind like this in Wairarapa."

Ken Pattie, a Powerco engineer, said in his 40 years of experience, it was one of the biggest storms he had worked in. "A lot of these guys are working really hard, we are making great progress."

On Thursday, Tenix and Powerco had 75 staff working on faults all over Wairarapa - there's normally only 22 staff on.

Mr Rose said extra staff from Wanganui to Tauranga had been brought in specially to deal with the power cuts.

Some areas were still without power, particularly isolated areas but they had been using a helicopter to get out to those areas. "What we do is like a river, with creeks and branches flowing into it, we get the river flowing first and then to the branches."

Most of the power cuts were caused by the impact of flying trees, Mr Rose said.

"The trees are blowing and hitting the lines from distance, the tops of trees are blowing 60 to 80 metres and taking it out.

"Our top priority is wires down."

Mr Rose said another hazard for staff was flying debris like swimming pool covers. "We had a lot of plastic on the lines."

The linesmen faced plenty of danger to fix about 40 broken power poles on Thursday.

"The danger for the guys is you can't get a ladder up in high winds," said Mr Rose.

However, they can make it safe by opening switches and isolating it from the ground, he said.

Power was back for most by Friday.