Graeme Johnson of Siemens says the recent winds were worse than Cyclone Bola.Photo / Richard Robinson.
Contractors have been working up to 18 hours a day in arduous conditions to repair damage from last week's storm, which those in the industry say was worse than Cyclone Bola.
Power companies have been under fire from some Rodney and North Shore households still without power after
the storm that battered the upper North Island last Tuesday.
But Graeme Johnson - a field resource manager with Siemens which is contracted to the power company Vector - says every effort has gone into restoring power.
Mr Johnson said linemen repairing damage had been working up to 18 hours a day in strong winds and heavy rain.
"They're out there trying to do their absolute best and working some extremely long and arduous hours, putting people's power on," he said.
"These guys have foregone their family lives for the last week and put their lives on hold to get people's power on ... there were guys that had leave booked for school holidays - they've come in to work. There's guys that had things they were taking their wives to - well, they basically just stop their lives for however long it takes.
"Their poor old families are suffering as well, especially with school holidays.
"Some of the kids haven't seen their dad for a week."
Mr Johnson said most damage was caused by trees blowing over and snapping powerlines. "I worked on Cyclone Bola almost 20 years ago and it's worse. We didn't have the rain that we had [with Cyclone Bola] but the wind speed was just absolutely phenomenal."
A pool of 36 staff usually on call for repairs had increased to 115 since the storm.
Support staff had been taking food such as Subway sandwiches to workers and the Siemens staff tearoom had doubled as a soup kitchen to ensure staff were eating properly as part of the company's fatigue management policy.
Mr Johnson said former linemen had been called to duty again and other day-to-day work including maintenance had been put on hold.
Mr Johnson said there had been some minor delays in repairs because thieves had been stealing equipment, which prolonged work as staff were diverted to prevent the resulting dangers posed to the public.
At its height, the storm left 140,000 homes without power.
