Taranaki's rough post-tornado night cut power to more homes

Wednesday, 11 April 2018

Matthew Vincent took this photo near the North Egmont Visitors Centre at Mt Taranaki.

About 700 Taranaki homes remained without power on Wednesday night in the wake of Tuesday's storm.

Tornadoes and lightning strikes early Tuesday and an overnight hammering from strong winds left 8200 North Island customers without power by daybreak on Wednesday.

As the wild weather hit Taranaki, the central North Island's National Park was also battered as another tornado destroyed a home and damaged several others. RNZ reporter Andrew McRae has the latest details.

By late afternoon those still offline as a result of storm damage had been reduced to 1000 and Powerco was hoping to make further gains before crews stopped for the night.

Powerco network operations manager Phil Marsh said coastal Taranaki suffered the most damage and remained the main focus of restoration work.

'This is where most of our remaining outages are, particularly around Rāhotu, and some people will be without power for another night,' he said.

First snow of the year on Mt Taranaki from Dawson Falls Mountain Lodge.

Lightning strikes in Eltham in central Taranaki

'We regret that but have done everything we could on the network today to reconnect as many people as possible. That will continue for the rest of today and crews, including linesmen called in from outside the province, will be out again first thing Thursday.'

Power was still out to around 3400 properties throughout the region on Wednesday morning. Civil defence, police and fire crews were out clearing roads and assessing damage.

On Tuesday Taranaki was battered by the storm that later hit Auckland. A tornado tore through the small settlement of Rahotu near Opunake damaging eight houses, some severely. RNZ reporter Robin Martin tells Guyon Espiner he spoke to a farmer who h

Strong winds caused further damage to the company's network on Tuesday night, a spokesman said.

There were several days of work ahead of crews clearing trees from lines, replacing downed poles and realigning poles knocked out of position by the tornadoes.

He said about 4600 Tairua customers on Powerco's eastern network were without power for most of the day. Overnight winds toppled trees across the main feeder line to the Tairua substation.

'We used a helicopter to patrol the line and discovered damage at a number of sites. Crews cleared those during the day and power was restored to most customers by about 3pm.'

Powerco Network Operations Manager Phil Marsh said on Wednesday morning crews were trying to isolate the fault.

Demi Bocock watched a tornado come off the beach and destroy everything in its path.

A tornado wrecked havoc as it tore through the coastal Taranaki town of Rahotu on Tuesday.

'Once we find the cause we can assess the damage and begin the restoration work,' he said.

A concerted effort was underway to tackle the massive task of repairing damage to poles and lines in Taranaki.

'Most of that happened as a result of strong winds and lightning early yesterday morning,' Marsh said.

'We made significant progress getting people back on supply yesterday and by late afternoon had reduced the numbers without power from 12,000 to 3000.

'There is a tremendous amount of repair work to be done in the Rāhotu area where there are multiple reports of poles and lines down.'

Marsh said the company understood customer frustration and asked for patience as field crews went about their work.

'It will not be a quick fix given the extent of the damage but we are doing everything we can to restore power to as many people as we can today,' he said.

The first priority was safety and public were urged to call either the police, or the emergency line on 0800 272727 to report damage.

'Downed lines must be treated as live at all times and people should keep clear of them.'

Okato to Pātea fared worst with power poles uprooted and lines brought down by falling trees.

Two schools, Rāhotu and Orautoha, were closed as well as four early education centre, a Ministry of Education spokesman said.

Port of Taranaki chief executive Guy Roper said there had been significant swells outside the harbour but there was no damage sustained during the severe weather.

'We had good early weather information, which enabled us to be prepared,' he said.

'We had no cargo vessels in port during the weather event but as part of our procedures and for safety reasons, our marine team issued a weather advisory for offshore support vessels in port to move from the berth into the harbour for shelter, where dynamic positioning was used.'

Temperatures dropped overnight leaving a covering of snow on Mt Taranaki down to 700 metres.

The roads to Dawson Falls Lodge and North Egmont Visitors Centre were both closed after 50cm - 75cm of snow fell overnight.