Power back on for most customers

Power has been restored to most customers in Otago after widespread cuts caused by Tuesday's wild weather.

A falling tree at the corner of Bush and Riccarton Rds near Mosgiel at noon on Tuesday cut power to 400 homes in the area.

Eighteen hundred homes in Mosgiel and 950 homes in Outram were also affected between 3pm and 4pm on Tuesday after branches fell on power lines.

However, by noon yesterday, power had been restored to nearly all the hundreds of affected consumers on the Aurora Energy network.

In Central Otago and the Queenstown Lakes area, power was cut in the Queensberry, Maungawera-Hawea and Fernhill areas.

North of Glenorchy, power was lost to about 90 consumers.

In the Omakau area, 179 customers lost power when strong winds brought down lines in Wallington Rd. A lightning strike momentarily interrupted electricity supply to 1112 consumers near Arrowtown and 580 consumers in the Dalefield and Coronet Peak area, including the skifield. There were outages in the Roxburgh, Wanaka and Queenstown areas because of strong winds and lightning.

Power had been restored to most people in Waitaki yesterday.

Network Waitaki general manager Graham Clark said about 30 power cuts between Shag Point and Kurow were reported, after high winds downed lines across the district, but further outages were also caused by lightning strikes.

Although permanent repairs would take several days to complete, power was expected to be restored to all customers by last night, he said.

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