More than a thousand Unison customers were without power in "mainly rural" parts of Hastings and Napier yesterday.
Unison relationship and customer care manager Danny Gough said crews attended up to 500 customers in Hastings and 250 in Napier yesterday morning.
Ninety-eight Eastland Network customers were also affected in Wairoa.
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"It's nothing really major, just lots of smaller ones that requires our crews to move from one job to the next.
"As we've restored some, others have gone out.
"We made good progress but then we had other outages occurring, so the guys certainly had a very busy day in very challenging conditions too.
"We really had to balance the work with ensuring the safety of our team."
Gough urged people to stay away from downed power lines and to report any to Unison as the day progressed.
Crews were able to speed up fixing power issues yesterday afternoon as the weather began to ease.
"It was a really hectic day for the crews, we've received a lot of pictures with flooded rivers, streams, flooded roads, trees across roads and slips."
About 75 customers were still without power around the Napier area about 5pm last night, including Patoka and Tangoio.
Fifty customers in Hastings particularly in the Crownthorpe area also had to wait patiently for power to be restored to their homes last night.
"We were losing the light and more rain was on the way, so we did what we could given the conditions.
"The calmer conditions made the jobs a little easier, but because of the sodden ground, that can always cause a few problems. It was still a challenge, but it enabled us to manage the safety issues a little bit better."
Gough said its workers' safety was paramount and the consistent rain and strong winds didn't help anyone, least of all the crews working to reconnect lines.
"The weather is our arch-enemy. We obviously have our guys working at elevated heights to help get the power on, and their safety is premium.
"We have to move trees and debris and then move ahead to fix the lines so it does take some time."
Gough said Unison was grateful for the patience and support from customers as the teams worked hard yesterday to get the power back on.
"They had to navigate through streams, rural areas, deal with downed trees, debris in powerlines and sodden ground. We really want to thank customers for their patience and support. Their positive feedback has been really well received by our guys who worked hard to get the power back on."