Electricity restored to Luggate, St Bathans

Houses in Luggate and St Bathans finally had electricity restored yesterday. A storm on Monday night had left many homes in the Queenstown Lakes District without electricity for up to 27 hours.

Delta general manager of asset management Adam Fletcher told the Otago Daily Times electricity had been returned to most areas by 10pm on Tuesday.

However, shortly after that lightning hit Transpower lines between Clyde and Twizel, cutting power across a wide area in Central Otago.

Mr Fletcher said he had not been notified of any individuals still without electricity near Queenstown yesterday.

Luggate residents waited until 11am yesterday to have their electricity restored.

Electricity in St Bathans was restored by about 3pm yesterday.

The time frames for electricity to be restored have raised questions about the region's preparations for an emergency such as the Christchurch earthquake in February this year.

However, Delta supervisor Graeme Johnson said the repair and response time could not have been any quicker.

"We had to call in crews from Dunedin, and with all the trees fallen in both Luggate and St Bathans, it couldn't have been physically done any quicker."

More than 500 homes had lost electricity on Monday in the Queenstown Lakes District as the 130kmh winds blew down power lines and trees and lifted roofs.

The Blakie family, of Fernhill, had no electricity from Monday night until Tuesday about 3pm.

If the electricity had been out much longer, Irma Blakie said she would have had to cook for three children on a small gas stove from an emergency kit she and husband Aaron had prepared.

"An adult can go hungry, but not the children," she said.

Mrs Blakie had not expected the outage to last all night because the wind had died down. However, the Blakies had been well prepared.

They used candles for light during the evening and a small gas heater to warm 7-month-old Max's milk.

Glenorchy resident Ruth-Ann Anderson said the township had no electricity for 26 hours and it felt "a bit like camping".

Most people in the community had barbecues they could use during the outage.

Those without any gas heating had to wrap up warmly, Ms Anderson said.