July 10, 2014 – 11.40am

Northpower Storm update #8

Bad weather is hampering some power restoration efforts for Northpower lines crews in Kaipara and Whangarei Districts.

Flooding has prevented crews restoring power to 22 customers at Paerata Road in Tangiteroria and 13 people at Umuwhawha Rad at Hukerunui.

At Telfer and Waiparera Roads, Parua Bay, 28 customers remain without power. A snapped power pole needs to be lifted in by helicopter and winds are too high for that to happen today. The situation will be reassessed tomorrow.

At Pataua, where 312 customers are without power, lines crews are walking gear in on foot to attempt repair damage to a pole. Vehicles are unable to get there.

Northpower now has more than 24 lines crews and a total of 100 field staff mobilised throughout Whangarei and Kaipara Districts.

Additional crews from Northpower depots - Tauranga, Matamata, Hamilton and Warkworth – have been a huge boost for local crews. Three helicopter inspections of Northpower’s lines network yesterday also helped fast-track trouble-shooting by identifying damage to lines and poles.

1500 Northpower customers are currently without power across the Kaipara and Whangarei Districts.

While the company is hoping to have power outages reduced to the low hundreds by later this evening, that figure could be impacted by the ongoing storm.

Many locals will be without power tonight and into the weekend, so Northpower is encouraging people to check in on neighbours where possible.

Those in need of medical assistance should phone 111 immediately, says Public Affairs Manager Steve Macmillan.

“People still without power should call Northpower faults on 0800-10-40-40 – and likewise, if you know of someone without power (who may also be without phone lines), please advise us of that potential on their behalf,” says Mr Macmillan.

As always, staying clear of downed lines is imperative – as is phoning in the potential cause of faults.

Northpower is a Northland owned electricity distribution company with around 55,000 consumers connected to its network over an area of 5,700 square kilometres across the Whangarei and Kaipara Districts in Northland. Northpower owns more than 3700km of high voltage electricity lines (237km underground) and almost 2100km of low voltage lines (643km underground) in Kaipara and Whangarei Districts, along with the 50kV transmission lines between Dargaville and Maungatapere. It is also one of New Zealand’s leading fibre network companies. www.northpower.com

ENDS

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