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Strong winds and heavy rain have knocked out power to hundreds of properties across Franklin, with emergency services responding to widespread weather-related incidents across Auckland.
Counties Energy says it is dealing with a large number of outages, most affecting individual properties, after wind damaged equipment and brought trees and branches down onto powerlines.
In an update tonight, Counties Energy says all available crews have been working throughout the day responding to vegetation debris, downed powerlines and other storm damage, with the priority on making the network safe.
As of 9.20pm, there were more than 230 repair jobs on the list, with over 730 properties without power, up from around 500 earlier in the day.
“Emergency crews will continue working through the night, but residents currently without power should expect outages to continue overnight.”
While additional crews are scheduled to return early tomorrow, the power company says there is a significant volume of repairs still to be completed. Counties Energy thanked crews working in difficult conditions and urged drivers to take care, warning vegetation debris remain scattered across the region.
The surge in affected properties comes as strong winds continued into the evening.
“All available crews are out there working hard to restore power to over 500 affected properties,” Counties Energy said earlier this evening.
“Most of these outages are related to single properties, so there’s a huge number of individual faults that need to be isolated, made safe and then resolved. This is not going to be quick given the scale of the damage.”
The power company said strong winds and rain had affected networks across much of the North Island, including the Franklin area, and confirmed crews were also responding to a vehicle crash into a power pole on Waiau Pa Road.
Residents without power are being urged to make alternative plans where possible, including arranging dinner options or staying with friends or family until power is restored.
Fire and Emergency New Zealand Northern Communications shift manager Josh Pennefather told the Franklin Times crews had responded to 146 weather-related callouts across Auckland by 8.20pm today, stretching from Wellsford to Pōkeno, with the majority of incidents occurring in Franklin.
Tree branches were reported down across multiple Franklin properties, while wind gusts disrupted powerlines throughout the district.
“There was also a tree fire in Ardmore,” Pennefather said, adding that a fire investigator has been assigned to the incident.
“At this stage, we can’t confirm whether the fire was weather-related.”
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Despite the volume of incidents, Auckland Emergency Management says it has not been activated.
“Auckland Emergency Management (AEM) did not need to activate in response to today’s wind watch, however our duty team maintained a monitoring position throughout the period that the watch was in place, including having an on-call team in our Emergency Coordination Centre,” Auckland Emergency Management’s Duty Manager David Murphy says.
“Today’s winds caused power outages in some parts of the region and reports of tree damage and roof damage. All of this was responded to by power companies and emergency services, within their regular resources, and did not require any additional coordination from AEM.
“The damage caused by today’s wind event is a good reminder to always treat lines as live at all times and dial 111 if your life or property is at risk. Check with your power company if you have any further outage concerns.
“Auckland Council received eight rain-related requests for service (blockages, manhole covers etc) and no requests for arborists to respond to tree issues on public land. If you do encounter trees down on public land, visit the council’s website and use the ‘Report a problem’ online tool to report it.”
Emergency services are urging people to stay clear of fallen trees and downed powerlines, and to report hazards to the appropriate authorities.
