About 50 contractors from PowerNet, Aurora, Delta, Waitaki Direct and other areas filled the dining room from 7am.
"We got called in on Friday," Oamaru linesman Nathan Cunningham said.
"When do I think we’re going home? After the last house gets its power back on, I’d say."
The state of local emergency declared in the Clutha district on October 23 was extended yesterday for another seven days, with more than 1100 properties still without power in South Otago yesterday afternoon and many farming and small communities remaining isolated.
Tomasi Coriakula, a Balclutha technical team leader, said yesterday his team’s main focus was to get the substations in the affected towns up and running.
"Now the focus is getting all the lines back up to get power to the customers."
Clutha Licensing Trust president Steve Morris said the breakfast was "a good way for us to say thank you".
Down the road from the Rosebank, the Clutha District Council chambers were transformed into an emergency management centre, involving representatives of Civil Defence, the Ministry for Primary Industries, infrastructure experts and others from as far away as Canterbury and Queenstown.
Shrugging at the long hours, they spoke with pride in their work.
"I met a young couple on a new farm expecting a baby very soon," Balclutha-based substation maintainer Craig Greenall said.
"They were really worried about what to do and how they were going to manage ... I explained how it was our job to manage all that and they should just take a break with family where there’s power. I think that took a fair bit of stress off them.
"We’re in the industry for a reason," he said.
"When stuff like this happens ... you go into auto mode. It’s what we do."
Mr Greenall described last week’s winds as the worst he had seen in 22 years.
Countless power lines, some transmitting more than 44,000V, were felled by toppling trees. Mr Greenall said he believed some of the worst damage was in Clydevale.
"The ground diameter torn up by the roots is bigger than our truck, and they’ve fallen over just one after the other."
