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About 1400 Canterbury homes are facing a third night without power after a particularly nasty snow dump.
Contractors have spent the day trying to get the power back on, and while they have repaired dozens of lines, they haven’t yet reached those in more remote areas.
Orion, which looks after the power lines in and around Christchurch and inland Canterbury, says it has 500 customers still without power tonight while Alpine Energy which manages the lines in South Canterbury has 800 customers with no electricity and Electricity Ashburton 100.
One contractor, Peter Phillips worked for six hours just on Domain Road, Springfield going from pole to pole, fusing the broken lines together and then rehanging them. He says this snow dump has been particularly nasty as “it’s the type of snow that clings to the line, it holds onto the wire and it just breaks everything”.
He says he doesn’t remember snow this damaging since the storms of 1992.
Local farmers say the problem is that the snow is incredibly dense so it’s extra heavy.
Vanessa Bragan of Kowai Valley says “it’s been bringing wires down, pulling them right off the posts, as well as downing trees”.
She says “we’ve had quite a few other snows that have been deeper but none of them have ever caused this much damage to fences and trees so it’s quite bad”.
With no electric fences many of the stock escaped their paddocks and workers are now using battery packs to keep the electric fences running and a generator to keep the power on at home.
Given the huge job facing contractors, Orion says some people will likely still be without power until Monday, even as the next cold front comes through.
Courtesy of tvnz.co.nz
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