Huntly power outage: Over 130 properties without power after car collides with power pole

More than 130 Huntly properties are without power after a car crashed into a power pole on Hakanoa Street this afternoon.

A police spokesperson said the single-vehicle crash was reported at 1.11pm.

“A vehicle has collided with a power pole,” the spokesperson told Waikato Herald.

“There were no injuries reported.”

The spokesperson said the road was not blocked.

“There’s no mention of anyone trapped and there is no mention of weather being a factor at this time.”

A Fire and Emergency spokesperson said they were called to a “power lines down” incident at 1.13pm.

“We responded with two firetrucks,” the spokesperson said.

“The power company was attending as well.”

The power in the area is managed by WEL Networks.

According to WEL’s website, an area around Lignite St, Bailey St and Hakanoa St in Huntly was experiencing an “unplanned outage”.

The website said 131 properties were affected from 1.17pm. Power was expected to be restored at about 6.24pm.

A severe thunderstorm brought down a tree and powerlines in the Coromandel locality of Te Puru.

The news comes after a tree and power line have toppled on to a car near a small settlement on the west coast of the Coromandel.

A Fire and Emergency New Zealand (Fenz) spokesperson said a Tapu Volunteer Fire Brigade truck responded to the incident near the settlement of Te Puru, about 10 kilometres north of Thames, about 10.25am on Wednesday.

The spokesperson said no one was inside the vehicle at the time of the incident on Thames Coast Rd (State Highway 25).

A Thames-Coromandel District Council spokesperson said they understood the incident was related to today’s weather events.

“I’m told the wind blew over a macrocarpa tree... The tree took down a power pole, the lines came down on a ute that was parked on the property.”

The site was a private property next to Te Puru School and no injuries were reported, the spokesperson said.

It was also confirmed SH25 was open with emergency responders and Powerco on site.

Maryana Garcia is a Hamilton-based multimedia reporter covering breaking news in Waikato. She previously wrote for the Rotorua Daily Post and Bay of Plenty Times.