Power supply company Unison Networks is hopeful today will see the end of a huge task of restoring permanent electricity connections to the hundreds of people who were blacked out in a snow storm between Napier and Taupo four weeks ago.
Dozens of generators were brought in to provide what was, in many cases, limited supply after the August 5-6 storm which brought down hundreds of poles and cut electricity to almost 200 homes and farms in the Taupo plains area towards the western end of the 130km stretch of State Highway 5.
Unison relationship manager Danny Gough says it has been the company's biggest damage repair job in more than a decade, many staff were away from home for several weeks, during which Unison also had help from crews provided by Electrix NZ, Central Hawke's Bay company Centralines, Waikato company WEL Networks and infrastructure company Broadspectrum.
Mr Gough said that, by Wednesday, when Unison had the last of its weekly meetings it has had with the people of the Rangitaiki Plains and surrounding areas since the storm, more than 150 customers were back on Unison supply and over 200 poles had been replaced.
"It's taken a tremendous amount of commitment and the guys are going all out to have them all back by the weekend," he told Hawke's Bay Today.