A regional power chief is asking southerners to hold tight as workers pull out all the stops to restore electricity to Otago and Southland’s far-flung corners following last week’s "unprecedented" storms.
PowerNet chief executive Paul Blue toured South Otago worksites yesterday, assessing the scale of the task remaining and offering encouragement to some of the 500 linesmen and support staff he said had worked "tirelessly" since winds tore through the country on Thursday.
Last night, 5600 customers remained without power, of which 3900 were in Southland and 1700 in South Otago.
Mr Blue said that made the scale of the repair job something never before seen in the South.
The "easy wins" of high-voltage, larger settlements were now back online, leaving the challenge of restoring power to smaller settlements and individual farms and dwellings, scattered across a huge area, he said.
That meant it was not yet possible to provide an accurate date for completion of the repairs, while ensuring linesmen would continue to work as quickly and safely as possible.
"Talking to customers across the region, no-one has seen anything like this before. It’s not necessarily the severity of the damage, but the sheer scale of it. Where other events might be localised on the map, this is simply everywhere.
"That has left thousands of individual customers with damaged infrastructure, every single one of which require a crew and perhaps a full day’s work to fix."
"We understand the pain and frustration customers are going through, and we’re acutely aware of every single one of them. Many of our staff and their families are among those without power, and we’re proud of the work they’re doing to help the communities they live in.
"Our team has scoped out 80% of the work now, and once that’s complete, we’d hope to get a better idea of when we can complete all the necessary repairs. We are getting there."
Talking staff through line damage on their 220ha farm near Clydevale yesterday were dairy farmers Todd and Holly McCammon.
Mrs McCammon said about 250 trees had been knocked over by the high winds, destroying fencing and knocking out power.
"It was awful. Pretty scary, but we’re all still here and walking.
"Obviously, we want power back as quickly as possible, but it’s a matter of waiting our turn. I’m sure there are others in a worse situation elsewhere in the South, so we just need to be patient.
"These guys are doing a fantastic job."
