Power is still days away for several parts of Canterbury

The region was battered by strong winds over the weekend. Photo / 123rf

By RNZ

A North Canterbury lines company says it could be several more days before all customers have power restored.

Crews are working to restore supply to thousands of homes including in Hurunui and Waimakariri, after the region was battered by damaging winds.

About 2600 MainPower customers in North Canterbury were still without power on Monday morning, and about 124 Orion households farther south.

MainPower said it was difficult to confirm when power would be restored to everyone due to the scale of faults and access issues.

It reminded people to treat all lines as live, as power could be restored at any time.

Orion general manager Steve MacDonald said he expected all the properties to be reconnected by the end of the day.

Once all customers in its area had supply back, Orion would send staff to help restore the North Canterbury network, he said.

MacDonald said almost all the outages had resulted from trees falling on powerlines. If people came across downed power lines they should assume they were live, he said.

Gusts of between 150 and 200km/h were recorded on Saturday in exposed areas, lifting roofs, toppling trees and bringing down power lines, as an active trough moves east across the country on Sunday.

MetService has issued another round of heavy rain and strong wind watches for several parts of the country, including a strong wind watch to 1am Tuesday for the Canterbury High Country.