Conditions delaying power restoration in flood affected areas
Customers without power following heavy rain and wind overnight in Coromandel Peninsula, western Bay of Plenty and eastern and southern Waikato should prepare for several days without power.
Powerco Head of Network Operations, Mark Dunn, says that during the peak of the outages (1am Thursday), 14,900 customers were affected by power cuts in the storm regions. By 4pm today, that number was down to 5,700.
“Our crews have been out fixing as much as they can today and restoring supply to as many people as possible. However, flooding and slips in some areas are causing huge difficulties for our crews to get to fault sites to make repairs. Some of those areas will require a helicopter to look at the scale of the damage, because some of the damage is significant.”
Damage is widespread, with trees through lines, poles down, and electricity boxes flooded.
“We know it’s really hard to be without power, however we need to be realistic. The conditions mean customers should prepare to be without power for several days – particularly if they are in the flooded areas or there are road closures.
“Crews can only make repairs once it is safe to do so – when roads are accessible and flooding has subsided. If you are in storm affected areas and you’re without power, thank you for your patience and understanding,” Mark Dunn says.
Powerco Head of Network Operations, Mark Dunn, says that during the peak of the outages (1am Thursday), 14,900 customers were affected by power cuts in the storm regions. By 4pm today, that number was down to 5,700.
“Our crews have been out fixing as much as they can today and restoring supply to as many people as possible. However, flooding and slips in some areas are causing huge difficulties for our crews to get to fault sites to make repairs. Some of those areas will require a helicopter to look at the scale of the damage, because some of the damage is significant.”
Damage is widespread, with trees through lines, poles down, and electricity boxes flooded.
“We know it’s really hard to be without power, however we need to be realistic. The conditions mean customers should prepare to be without power for several days – particularly if they are in the flooded areas or there are road closures.
“Crews can only make repairs once it is safe to do so – when roads are accessible and flooding has subsided. If you are in storm affected areas and you’re without power, thank you for your patience and understanding,” Mark Dunn says.
How customers can stay safe
If you see downed power lines, it’s important to:
- Stay at least 10m away from the lines and poles - that's about the length of a bus. Downed lines should always be treated as live.
- Call 111 immediately or Powerco's emergency number, 0800 27 27 27.
- In flood waters, stay out of the water and well away from ground-mounted electricity equipment, such as transformers and pillar boxes, which connect underground cables to properties.
- If your house is flooded and it’s safe to do so (eg the meter board isn’t submerged in water), turn off your mains power at your meter board.
How customers can check for an outage
- Stay up to date on current outages by viewing our interactive outage map.
- Report an outage: If your outage isn't showing on the map, please report it here. Reporting your outage helps us ensure we know your specific address has been affected.
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