Power board failure raises ire

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 9, Issue 437, 19 May 1992, Page 1

Power board failure raises ire

The extended hours without power for Waiouru last week wasn't good enough, the chairman of the Waiouru Community Board Bobby Vine has said. During the Board 's meeting last Tuesday night Mr Vine said a letter would be sent to the power authority requesting an explanation for the long delay in restoring power. The first power cut was caused by a car accident four kilometres south of Waiouru, which brought down power lines. MidWestern Powerco restored power seven

hours after the accident only to face a second power cut caused by a tree, brought down by heavy snow, falling across power lines. "After the tree fell on the lines there was no move to locate the problem to restore power for over six hours, and this just isn't good enough," said Mr Vine. "It should have taken them four hours. We've got a very young community which makes it difficult." He said he didn't think repairing wires should have been so difficult.

He said he felt the power authority had down scaled its responsibilities in such an urgent situation, and that this would not have happened in the cities. "We pay for our elec-

tricity and we need a better service than this." He said the business community lost as much as 80 per cent of their normal profit during the weekend. The petrol stations couldn't provide a

service and the restaurants could not cook. He said families could not get anything warm to eat and stranded motorists were cold, couldn't refuel or eat a meal.

"People were trapped, with no where to go." He said he had seen a

grader on State Highway One so access to the broken line should not have been a problem.