More than 500 Whanganui homes left without power following night of power outages

A truck hitting a power pole kicked off a night of power outages across Whanganui. Photo / Supplied

A total of 521 Powerco customers across Whanganui had their power disconnected during a series of outages on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.

According to a Powerco representative, 194 houses in Gonville lost power just after 7pm on Tuesday after a truck hit a power pole on the corner of Heads Road and Carlton Avenue.

Powerco said that as a result of the incident, a further 163 houses also lost power at 7:18pm.

A Powerco field crew was dispatched to make the site safe after the incident and all houses were reconnected by 8:20pm.

A field crew will be returning to replace the damaged pole, according to Powerco.

In addition, overnight on May 17, there were three separate outages to the northeast of Whanganui.

Powerco said 24 houses in Parakino lost power at 5:30pm on Tuesday evening after trees came into contact with power lines.

A field crew was dispatched this morning to make repairs and houses should be reconnected by midday Wednesday, Powerco said.

A further 39 homes lost power at 10:34pm Tuesday night in the Brunswick area.

A field crew was dispatched to fix the outage, but Powerco said they were unable to reach the site due to a slip across the road.

The field crew would return Wednesday morning once access to the road was restored, and Powerco said the homes should be restored at around 11:30am Wednesday morning.

On Papaiti Rd 101 homes lost power at 1:52am on Wednesday morning after trees brought down powerlines.

Power was restored to those houses at about 7am Wednesday morning.

Powerco thanked its customers who were still waiting to be reconnected for their patience.