Thousands of homes in the South lost power because of a national grid fault while the region was also lashed by stormy weather on Sunday, causing further disruption. At one stage, the electricity network was out for most of Southland. PowerNet said strong winds, lightning strikes and the Transpower outage left about 25,000 customers without power about lunchtime on Sunday. Transpower NZ, the national grid owner, had experienced a significant problem, causing power to be lost for about two hours. Meanwhile, stormy conditions earlier on Sunday and throughout the afternoon had caused outages throughout Southland and parts of Otago. Several Air New Zealand flights were cancelled because of severe gales in southern and central parts of the country. The airline said strong winds had impacted its operations in Wellington, Palmerston North, New Plymouth, Blenheim, Invercargill, Dunedin and Queenstown, RNZ reported. MetService forecaster Gerard Bellam said severe gale west-southwesterly gusts reaching 120kmh in exposed places led to an orange wind warning for Dunedin and Clutha on Sunday. Winds at Dunedin Airport reached 96kmh while the city was less windy at 65kmh, and Balclutha experienced gusts of 122kmh. Hundreds of properties in Otago and Southland remained without power on Sunday afternoon. At 2.30pm on Sunday, PowerNet estimated 800 customers remained without electricity due to weather-related damage — about 500 in Southland and 300 in Otago. By 5.15pm that number had reduced to about 300 customers without power, and PowerNet hoped to get at least half of them back on last night. PowerNet operations general manager Geoff Thorburn said the field teams were well prepared for Sunday’s storm. “We’ve experienced a lot of lightning strikes throughout Southland which can cause significant damage to our electricity infrastructure, and can take quite some time to repair.” He reminded people to stay away from downed lines and warned against trying to clear them. He also acknowledged the work Southland and Otago residents, businesses and farmers had put in to prepare for outages — including trimming or removing trees — following last year’s October wind event. “We know that many of you have been checking, trimming and cutting down trees that threaten power lines over the past year, and that will have made a difference today.” At 2.30pm on Sunday it was “too early to tell” if people needed to prepare to be without power overnight, Mr Thorburn said, but he encouraged people to check their emergency kits. A Fire and Emergency NZ spokesman said at 9.30am on Sunday they assisted a Clinton occupant with a blown-out window and attended a weather-related Invercargill incident involving loose roofing iron. A police spokesperson said officers had received reports of a cable hanging down in Stone St in Dunedin about 10.30am on Sunday. Indications were that the cable was dislodged by high winds and police informed relevant agencies and advised people to take extra care on the roads in the weather. The Lindis Pass, Crown Range Rd and Milford Rd all had snowfall warnings until 6pm on Sunday. Dunedin could expect a warm day on Monday with northwesterly winds and a high of 17°C. Tuesday was expected to be 17°C as well, although the city could get an afternoon shower. The average high for this time of year was about 12°C. felicity.dear@odt.co.nz
