Frustration is mounting among residents in Wellington who have been without power since early Thursday.
Thousands of homes lost power during the storm which battered the region this week.
Most have since been restored, but Wellington Electricity says some repairs will continue until the middle of next week.
Natasha Eagle and her two children have been coping without electricity at their Island Bay home for four days. She said communication had been muddled and sparse, and it was difficult having no idea whether restoration was hours or days away.
That view was backed up by Brooklyn resident Sean Keaney. He said he and his family of five had been without electricity since midnight Thursday.
He said they were the only house in the street affected and an electrician had confirmed the problem was at the pole.
Keaney said communication from Wellington Electricity had been appalling.
“However there is absolutely no information for us and others like us. I’ve called multiple times to be told ‘we have no ETA’, ‘sorry, we don’t have any information on when someone will be there’, and when I pushed and asked to talk to someone to escalate this, was told they ‘don’t want to talk to you and you can make a complaint when it’s all resolved’.
“This is appalling communication from Wellington Electricity – they will have a schedule of work and an idea of when they could be out to fix but refusing to share it. So we’re left in limbo, as our family of five approach 60 hours without electricity, not knowing how long it will be and unable to plan.”
Others took to social media, venting frustration about the lack of communication and updates from Wellington Electricity.
Wellington Electricity said it was progressively restoring power to single-premise outages – with faults being prioritised by how long they had been out.
“After the strongest winds in a decade lashed the Wellington region on Thursday, Wellington Electricity has restored power to the bulk of affected customers,” it said in a statement to RNZ on Sunday afternoon, adding that 8000 customers had been impacted.
“Crews have worked 14-hour days since Thursday, managing safety with regular check-ins and roster rotations to manage fatigue.”
Two-hundred properties remained cut off.
“Wellington Electricity anticipates restoring the bulk of its remaining customers without power by Monday evening, however further repairs will be necessary including streetlight circuit restoration.”
Anyone without power who has not been contacted should call their electricity retailer directly so repair crews can be dispatched to restore supply.
“Wellington Electricity acknowledges the extended disruption these outages have caused and thanks customers for their continued patience while final restoration work is completed.”
rnz.co.nz
