Power supplies knocked out by Tuesday's storms in Waimate are expected to be restored today, as life slowly returns to normal for Waimate, but at least one farmer is caught in an irrigation ''disaster'' affecting the whole of Canterbury.
About 1000 people across the Waimate district and Twizel were left without power when storm-force winds on Tuesday downed power lines, and Waimate Mayor John Coles said although power had been returned to about half of the Waimate township, a ''large area'' of rural Waimate was still without it yesterday.
Mr Coles said some properties may not be reconnected until late today.
The council had considered putting a contingency plan in place to deliver food to elderly people left without power, but decided not to, because most township's shops and takeaways had power restored by Wednesday afternoon, he said.
''Hopefully, people will take care of their friends, and I know that's happening. Those who have power are looking after some of the others who haven't.''
He said the storm had highlighted the need for residents and especially farmers to be prepared for extreme events.
''What's been highlighted out of this is dairy farms. They are in full swing milking at the moment, and quite a number have been caught out because they didn't have generators or a power source to milk the cows.''
The Waimate township was particularly hard hit on Tuesday, when downed trees and high winds damaged property.
Waimate District Council chief executive Tony Alden said the extent of damage was still being assessed and an estimate of the cleanup and damage costs would not be known for a ''number of days''.
Alpine Energy chief executive Andrew Tombs said there had been cuts ''right across the network'' between the Rangitata River in the north and the Waitaki River in the south, as well as between Waimate and Twizel.
''It's full on, and to assist us resource-wise we have crews coming over from the West Coast ..., as well as from Central Otago.''
Irrigation New Zealand said 800 irrigators had been damaged across Canterbury, and although Waitaki Irrigation Collective policy manager Elizabeth Soal said there were no issues in Waitaki, one irrigator on Morven, Glenavy, Ikawai Irrigation Scheme had been severely damaged.
''However, there could be more that we haven't heard about yet.''
Irrigation NZ chief executive Andrew Curtis said there were simply not enough parts to repair all 800 damaged machines.
Some farmers could experience a time lag of eight weeks before irrigators were repaired, and the situation was ''extremely serious'', he said.
''If we experience a dry spring, the consequences could be dire for many Canterbury farmers.''
South Canterbury Federated Farmers president Ivon Hurst , said Rural Support and Federated Farmers had been ''flat out'' delivering generators, and most Waimate dairy farmers now had access to generated power, but ''everywhere there was a centre pivot, there is a bent one.''
He said the real devastation at the moment was in Mid Canterbury, but fallen trees were still causing access problems for some milk tankers across South Canterbury.
Mackenzie District Council assets manager Bernie Haar said just one road in the district had been closed as a result of Tuesday's storm, when about 100 trees in Monument Rd were blown over.
However, contractors were already working to clear the road from storm damage in July, and the road would re-open today.
