After criticisms the suburbs had been left to battle on alone, Mr Brownlee took an early morning drive around the suburbs and said while people there were struggling help was on the way.
Mr Brownlee said the number of portaloos in the streets he drove through "was thin, no question".
More were being sent today along with two large generation plants which each could supply 200 homes.
"It's a bit unfair to say they are being neglected," he told NZPA.
"There's been a huge effort trying to connect sewer, water and power out that way in fact we consented in probably record time for New Zealand - less than five minutes - a big project to get power out there."
In response to the criticism, National Civil Defence controller John Hamilton said the eastern suburbs had not been forgotten and everything possible was being done to provide help.
While he accepted many residents were without electricity, water or access to toilets, he said transport was also difficult because of damage to roads.
"At the same time we are also dealing with an unprecedented urban search and rescue operation in the central city," he said.
"We now have more than 200 building evaluation teams, including 400 welfare staff and 50 search and rescue staff, visiting homes in the area and we are prioritising building evaluations, portaloos and chemical toilets to the Eastern suburbs and areas of greatest need."
By the end of Saturday, building evaluation inspectors will have finished assessing all priority areas in the eastern suburbs, he said.
Eighty-six extra portaloos were going into Avonside and Dallington today, and 120 more were arriving tomorrow.
Chemical toilet distribution has also begun in the eastern suburbs, with first area visited today the Avondale-Bexley area.
"There will be one chemical toilet allocated to each household with a central tank for disposal. Street-based portaloos will be located on main arterial routes for easy access and visibility," he said.
The delivery of the chemical toilets was being hampered by heavy traffic, with residents asked to refrain from any non-essential travel.
Orion technicians were working to restore power to the east. Around half of the 27,000 houses without power are expected to be reconnected by Sunday. Diesel generators that can service 200 homes were being brought in.
Labour MP Lianne Dalziel yesterday told Radio New Zealand that some parts of the eastern suburbs had got insufficient help and support. For example, the council made decisions about resources such as portaloos based on the number of phone calls that came in, she said.
But in those badly hit areas many people did not have power or telephones. She said one long street only had one portaloo on it.
Blogger Peter Hyde, who lives in the southeast, said he was living in "refugee city" where thousands of people were struggling with little access to power, water, gas and other services.
The official response had not been enough to contain the growing crisis, Mr Hyde said.
Mr Brownlee said journalists had done stories about neglect but not about a new overhead powerline which diverted power to people in need which was put up in three days by Orion when it normally took three months.
Mr Brownlee said the scale of the disaster had to be considered.
"It's unfair to the thousands of people out there getting up every morning, literally in some cases working up to their elbows in the crap, trying to fix things to suggest the eastern suburbs have been neglected."
