Cyclone Gabrielle Update - Saturday 10am
Published 18 February 2023
We have over 200 field staff and 100 staff supporting the reconstruction effort, with additional crews continuing to arrive from all over the north island.
Over the past few days, we have restored over 25,000 customers with 5,000 remaining without power. We continue to make good progress livening dairy farms. Forty-three remain without power, down from 393. These farms remain a priority.
Critical infrastructure remains a key focus. Of the 77 schools in the district, we have 4 that remain without power, we are working to get these back up and running over the weekend so students can return to school on Monday. 95% of critical infrastructure sites have now been restored. Remaining sites have been scheduled for repair.
Helicopter surveys have confirmed extensive damage in the Pouto and Kellys bay area. Our vegetation crews have been hard at work clearing the many downed trees.
We have been able to restore power to some of the northern parts of Pouto peninsula and are working our way up south to progressively restore customers as we go. There could be some customers without power for up two weeks in this area.
Other areas of extensive damage include Ruawai, Whatitiri, Otaika Valley, Arapohue Road, and Pukehuia Road. We have crews working in these areas and hope to progressively liven customers as we continue to move down the main lines, repairing the damage as we go. Customers in these areas should prepare to be without power for up to a week.
There are over a thousand sites with minor damage across our network impacting individual or small clusters of properties. Damage includes blown fuses, small sections of low voltage lines and damaged low voltage poles, we have crews working on these issues and we will assign an increasing proportion of our resources to this as the larger reconstruction work is completed.
We are seeing extensive damage to low voltage lines on customers own properties. Those repairs will require homeowners to work with their own electricians or contractors. We have added a guide to our website to help customers understand issues that they may need to get attended to themselves, along with a list of approved contractors.
If power has been restored to your neighbourhood but you do not have power, please call our call centre on 0800 10 40 40 to ensure we know about your fault.
New information is available on our website, including an interactive map where you can enter your address and check the current estimate for restoration. Go to northpower.com/status.
We have been advised of over 200 lines down across the region and continue to receive new notifications. Our field staff have inspected these lines however there always remains a chance that issues exist that we have not been advised of. A reminder to please treat all lines and equipment as live at all times, please stay well clear of downed power lines and call us on 0800 10 40 40.
We would like to thank everyone, and especially those without power for their ongoing patience and understanding as we work through this.
