• Widespread power outages near Waimarama

Widespread power outages near Waimarama

Wet and wild weather has caused widespread power outages over the last 24-hours, with about 1800 Unison customers affected at different times. 

Currently, more than 200 residents within the Waimarama and Ocean Beach area remain without power.

According to Unison, a total of 240 customers were impacted along Waimarama Rd, Harper Rd, Lightning Ridge View, Waipuka Rd, Timoti Rd, Waitangi Rd, and Waimarama Heights.

The unplanned power outage began at 5.43am and is expected to be restored by 11am this morning.

Two residents on Poukawa Rd, and nine residents on Main Rd have had to wait a little longer, with an unplanned power outage from just after 10pm last night.

A total of 502 customers across Waimarama and Ocean Beach also experienced a seven-hour outage between 10.57pm on Monday and 3.55am on Tuesday.

Unison Relationship Manager Danny Gough said they were working as quickly as they can to get power restored. 

"We got whacked a little bit unfortunately with the rain that came in and a little bit of wind around as well. When you have a period of no rain for quite a period of time, which is what we've had, when the rain does come in, it can cause a little bit of carnage, unfortunately." 

He said the number of power outages was mainly due to things like branches falling down and hitting lines which then caused a "domino effect". "We've had a number of insulators that have then cracked or broken and insulators are a wee device that holds power line in place on the power pole, and typically these areas are just not that easy to access as well."

While some outages have been easier to restore, others have been more challenging like this current one, Gough said. 

"We believe once we got on top of these current [outages] that hopefully, we should be okay. But as always people should be prepared for unexpected power outages given the changes in weather." 

"We appreciate people's ongoing patience and we understand the frustration of having no power, and our crews are acutely aware of that, so we are doing everything possible to put power on as quickly as possible but obviously safety is our number one priority." 

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