Wairarapa-Manawatū storm recovery update

Electricity crews from throughout the North Island are travelling to Wairarapa and Manawatū-Tararua to assist in restoring power to customers following the severe gale force winds that battered the regions this week.

Crews will continue working today and into the long weekend to ensure all customers whose power was cut by the weather are reconnected.

As at 11am Friday, customers without supply include:

Powerco Head of Network Operations, Mark Dunn, says more than a dozen crews from Taranaki, Matamata, Tauranga and Hamilton will be arriving in the regions from today to fix damage so power can be restored – as well as relieve local crews who have been on the job since early Tuesday.

“Not since Cyclone Gabrielle have we had this much widespread damage on our electricity network,” Mark Dunn says.

“Wairarapa has been particularly hard hit – with damage being scattered throughout the region, with multiple lines down. Rural communities along the coast have borne the brunt of it, but there’s been outages in Masterton, Carterton, Greytown – all over.

“Our crews have been working tirelessly to get as many people’s power back on as we have safely been able to. The geography of both Wairarapa and Tararua means that, to supply power to communities there, we have long rural lines traversing remote areas - a number going through forestry blocks.

“Extreme winds that we have seen this week have resulted in trees and other debris ripping through power lines and downing poles in these remote, hard to access areas.

“I know it’s really hard to be without power for extended periods of time, so I want to personally thank our customers for their patience and understanding as our crews continue to work to restore power to all affected areas,” Mark Dunn says.

Wairarapa region

Riversdale

Riversdale was one community that had been without power since early Tuesday, after poles and lines were brought down by trees and debris in the gale force conditions. During breaks in the weather on Thursday, crews were able to replace poles and restring lines to reconnect the community (427 customers) by early evening yesterday.

While Powerco has a generator at Riversdale Beach as a backup supply for the community, it couldn’t be used because there was damage to the lines feeding into and out of the generator location.

The Castlepoint generator was able to be used, however, enabling power to be restored promptly to that area.

Tararua region

Ākitio

At midday Thursday, the Ākitio PowerHub kicked into action when power was lost to the small coastal settlement in Tararua. The PowerHub is a backup power system that links a hybrid Stand Alone Power Supply (SAPS) unit to the local hall to provide independent power during emergencies and prolonged power outages. The PowerHub was installed in May this year.

Customer and animal welfare

If people see downed power lines, it’s important to:

We respond 24/7 to lines down incidents on our electricity network. Learn more about what to do in an emergency here.