Auckland residents still without power frustrated at power company

Saturday, 14 April 2018

Downed power lines meant widespread power outages across the city, leaving thousands of Auckland residents without electricity for days.

Residents living on Auckland's fringes are 'beyond frustrated' at the lack of communication from lines company Vector after being plunged into darkness following Tuesday night's storm.

Gale-force winds and heavy downpours downed hundreds of trees across the city, some snapping power lines or blocking roads, causing severe, widespread damage to the city's power network.

A Vector spokesman said it was easily the worst damage to the network in a decade, and their current system of customer communication wasn't up to scratch. 'Quite clearly we need to do better next time.'

There were still 5000 people without power on Saturday morning, mostly in the western and northern areas of the city.

* In pictures: Storm lashes New Zealand

* Roofs off, trees, powerlines down as Auckland takes hit from southerly storm**

As patience wears thin, New Zealand Defence Force staff and vehicles have been brought in to help emergency services conduct welfare checks on Auckland region residents.

Thirty-one Royal New Zealand Air Force personnel are assisting in South Head, Kaipara, Parakai and Helensville areas.

Michelle, who didn't want her last name to be identified, said being in her rural Waitoki cottage was 'terrifying' at night in the pitch dark.

'It's the little things that maybe people don't realise.

'You actually feel quite unsafe because we are quite rural - we're a kilometre and a half up from the nearest road.

'If our phones go dead and we have an emergency, how will anyone know and find us?'

The power outage meant she and the rest of the household couldn't get through the property's electric gate and were instead having to jump it every time they want to leave.

She said they had to wear extra layers and blankets to combat the cold, and were trying to get a chillybin because all their food was going off.

That, and getting takeaways every day to feed everyone, was getting expensive, she said.

'They [Vector] keep telling us power is going to be back on at a certain time, then it never is, now they are saying next week - well, when is next week? are we talking two days or seven?

'It's caused quite a bit of frustration for everybody, really.'

She said the Vector smart phone app was unreliable and she had spent about four hours on hold in total, trying to speak to a representative.

'If they gave a better estimate as to when power would return we could have planned ahead better, like checking in to a hotel or hiring a port-a-loo, instead of trying to make do like we've been doing.'

Vector was well aware of the problem.

Auckland was battered with another storm overnight Friday, just days after Tuesday night's main storm.

'This has been an event of just about unprecedented scale, it's easily the worst damage to the network in a decade, and quite possibly more than that,' a spokesman said on Saturday afternoon.

'As far as estimated restoration times go, that's something that we need to look at for next time we have a big event, because clearly it has not been providing sufficient information for customers.'

He said the app was overwhelmed and was not providing accurate maps, 'that was very unhelpful for customers'.

In response, the company updated the website's outages map, to a more comprehensive one that was updated four times a day.

'We haven't had anything like this since we put in our current system of customer communication, so those systems have never been tested to this extent before and quite clearly we need to do better next time.'

There were 10,000 Aucklanders still without power at 8am on Saturday morning. That number decreased to 5000 by 11am as Vector technicians eliminated faults in the grid.

Persistent poor weather continued to hinder restoration efforts, with fresh warnings for more bad weather on its way.

MetService issued a severe weather watch for potential thunderstorms and downpours across Auckland, the Coromandel and Waikato on Saturday morning.

Despite this, Vector hoped to get the main 'back bone' of their network fixed over the weekend.

'We are hopeful that we are going to get the high voltage stuff done today, that's going to leave us with the individual outages and hot water work to do as well, and that will take us into the middle of next week.'

Mel Baker, 42, from Muriwai said she and her mum were in a similar boat as Michelle.

The pair had been wearing head torches in their home at night and bucketing water for ablutions for days, with 'no word' from the lines company on when power may be restored.

'If it's only going to be a couple of days, that's fine, but if it's going to be more than a week, let us know so we can arrange bottled water, port-a-loos or generators.

'Every time you speak to Vector or get in contact with them, you get told a different time, a different story.'

She said it was a major source of frustration.

'I don't think anyone's having a go at the guys who are trying to get it connected, it is the communication that's the problem.'

'We just need to be told what's going on.'