Northland news in brief: Lightning causes little damage; and death not suspicious

A lightning storm over Northland on Saturday night caused relatively little damage.

Northland escaped relatively unscathed from a lightning storm except four houses that lost power overnight on Saturday. Two houses were without power on Wharekawa Rd in Opononi, while another two were affected on Fairburn Rd in Kaitaia yesterday morning.
Top Energy lines crews were cleaning up after the lightning strikes about 3am yesterday as well as from Thursday night's storm which cut off electricity supply to nearly 3000 houses across the region. There were no power outages in Whangārei and Kaipara from the lightning strikes.

Safety fence proposal

A building surveyor has offered to erect fencing around a structurally-defective Whangarei house that has been condemned. The offer by Mat Boyce, of Scope Building Surveyors at Whau Valley, followed a series of articles the Northern Advocate ran in the past two weeks about the predicament faced by home owner Anthony Stringer and his wife Marian.
The couple are staying in a motel after their house, on Manuka Pl in Raumanga, was deemed too dangerous to live in by the Whangārei District Council on August 27. Engineering reports are being done by WDC and the Earthquake Commission to ascertain the cause of the cracks on the property as well as sagging land around it. Earthworks on a subdivision below the house are being investigated as a possible cause of the damage.

Death not suspicious

Police are not treating the death of a Northland man as suspicious. Emergency services were called to Russell Whakapara Rd on Saturday morning where the man was found im mangroves by a member of the public. His identity and other details will be released after his next-of-kin has been informed. The death has been referred to the Coroner.

Special charity concert

Whangārei Special Olympics is holding a fundraising concert next month. The concert, featuring country icons Dennis Marsh, Brendan Dugan, and Annette and Kim, will be at the Kamo Club on October 12 from 1pm, Tickets are available at the club for $10, which includes afternoon tea.

First Division split

Two punters from Auckland and Hamilton each won $500,000 with Lotto First Division in Saturday's live Lotto draw. The winning tickets were sold at Manukau Pak'NSave in Auckland and Gordonton Superette in Hamilton. Powerball was not struck and has rolled over to Wednesday night, where the jackpot will be $10 million. Strike Four was won by players from Wellington and Invercargill, who each take home $150,000. Fifteen players each won $17,198 in the Lotto Second Division draw. The winning Lotto numbers were 1, 7, 20, 29, 31, 38 with the Bonus number 32 and Powerball 2.