ELECTRIC POWER

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 61, 13 March 1934, Page 9

ELECTRIC POWER

SURVEY OF DAMAGE

(By Telegraph) (Special to the "Evening Post.") • PALJIERSTON N., March 12. A special report on the damage douo to the board's lines and buildings was presented to this' afternoon's meeting of the, Manawatu-Oroua P'owrir Board by. the engineer, Mr.!W. A. Waters. As a result of the 11,000-volt- lines : swinging together, eight of the oil switches, at Bunnyfhorpe controlling the feeders -tripped and the main switch also tripped from the same i cause. The "flashes of lightning" seen by various 'people were undoubtedly j due to the power arcs before the auto matic switches tripped out. The steel-work undoubtedly saved the Bunnythorpe . sub-station from collapse, and as all " the transformers throughout the, system are now bolted to their platforms, -no damage . resulted from broken bushings, on transformers, or automatic cubicles. "Experience' from the Waituna, j Murchison, Porangahau, and Napier! earthquakes, as well as the recent one, has - disclosed the that Bunnythorpo. gets shaken worse than other places in the district," said Jlr. Waters. "Practically every chimney in Bunnythorpe is fractured, and all the chimneys Tip Dixon's. line are broken. , "The sub-station has.developed several new cracks and a somewhat serious crack in the south-east corner—in other words, the earthquake" nearly succeeded in taking out the corner of the .building." Miv Waters said that the ■ board's office at Palmerston, North had not been damaged, but a falling parapet at the Feilding office had broken away the verandah and carried away the telephone lines. .Numerous service lints to houses were stretched or broken," but apart from this the damage appeared to ba remarkably light. The board decided "to congratulate the sub-station attendant at Bunuythorpe on the expeditious manner in which the power had been restored throughout the district. It %vas also decided to congratulate, the engineer (Mr. W. A. -Waters) and his staff on the precautions that had been taken.