Power cuts across region, but rain set to ease

160314bf16 wet weather 16 March 2014 Rotorua Daily Post Photograph by Ben Fraser

Hundreds of people have been hit by power cuts in the Rotorua and Eastern Bay areas.

In Mamaku 377 customers were affected when power lines were blown down at 12.38am today.

Fault crews were able to quickly restore all but 113 customers, who were reconnected once repairs were completed at 7.23am. The outage affected customers on Maraeroa Road, Umuroa Street and Oturoa Road.

A Unison spokeswoman said this morning that there were still outages on Tumunui Rd, Tauranga Direct Rd and in Reporoa where 61 customers were affected. The cuts originally hit 134 customers in the Reporoa area.

"Unison crews are working to restore those customers without power as quickly as possible," she said.

"We'll be keeping the community updated via our Facebook page and Twitter feed."

Horizon Energy has reported various outages across the Eastern Bay.

The areas affected are:

· Waiotahi Valley (10)
· Part of College Road, Edgecumbe (118)
· Part of Troutbeck Road, Galatea (36)

"We have located the cause of the outages but the repairs are being delayed due to the unsafe conditions caused by the severe weather," said operations manager Jan Cronje.

"We thank our customers for their patience and understanding until repairs can be undertaken. We will keep customers updated throughout the day with the progress of the repairs.

"Horizon Energy apologises for any inconvenience this may have caused and advises all customers to contact their retailers in the first instance and to treat all lines as alive at all times."

MetService has reported 38.4mm of rain falling in Rotorua since midnight. The rain is expected to ease by lunchtime.

Strong winds of between 43km/h and 54km/h were also recorded at its Rotorua weatherstation.