Unison urges Bay to prepare for power outages

Several days of heavy rain has Unison on alert for power outages across Hawke's Bay. Photo / Warren Buckland

Electricity distributor Unison is reminding people to be prepared for power outages, with the heavy rain increasing the risk of slips, trees or debris affecting powerlines.

Unison's relationship manager Danny Gough said people should have an emergency kit ready in case of power outages.

"We just remind people to make sure they are prepared for power outages, that they have got their emergency kits in place, just make sure they are prepared should power go out."

He said the company was watching the weather and had teams ready to go in case people lost power.

"We've certainly got an eager eye on the weather at the moment, especially the wind."

"We're ready to go if we need to, we've got all our crews ready."

He said Unison was particularly concerned about the forecast for strong wind.

"If the forecast strong winds continue to build, we could be looking at outages unfortunately."

He said rural areas were the most at risk.

"The hill areas, rural areas, we will be keeping a close eye on."

The weather had already caused isolated power outages across the region, with the largest occurring on Wednesday, where 370 people lost power in the northern part of Hawke's Bay.

Currently, about 29 people are without power on Dartmoor Road, on the outskirts of Napier.

"The outage there was caused by a slip, which has brought down a whole lot of debris and some trees and stuff like that."