Cyclone Gabrielle aftermath: Power restored to all but a few in Rotorua and Taupō

Power has been restored to most of Rotorua and Taupō.

More than 9000 households were initially without power on Tuesday after Cyclone Gabrielle swept through the region leaving a trail of destruction.

As of Thursday evening, only 44 homes were still without power in Rotorua and Taupō, Unison said.

There are still 37,548 homes still without power in Hawke’s Bay, 31,527 of these are from Napier which has been affected by a loss of supply from Transpower’s Redclyffe substation, which feeds most of Napier and parts of Hastings.

Unison’s relationship manager Danny Gough said: “Although we’ve managed to restore power to almost all of Rotorua and Taupō, Hawke’s Bay continues to be challenging to limited regional supply from Transpower.”

Unison asked reconnected customers in Hawke’s Bay to conserve power use as it continues restoration efforts.

Meanwhile, New Zealand Telecommunications Forum (TCF) chief executive Paul Brislen said he believed all broadband services were back to normal in the region.

“Today far as I’m aware it’s all operating as normal,” he said.

“There may be some minor pockets where the odd cellsite is having issues but nothing widespread I’m happy to say.”