Fault Interrupts Electricity Supply In Opunake Area

Taranaki Daily News, 24 August 1942, Page 2

Fault Interrupts Electricity Supply In Opunake Area

Thunderstorm thought toi be cause of trouble. Opunake and its district were without electric light or power for a time early yesterday evening when a fault developed on the line that supplies Te Kiri sub-station from the Public Works Department station at Stratford. Though the cause of the trouble was not known last night, it was thought it was probably due to the thunder storm experienced shortly before 6 p.m., and said to have been most sever-e in the Whangamomona and Tongaporutu districts. It was about 6 p.m. that the power failed at Opunake and the Egmont elec-tric-power supply area, but before 8 o'clock a supply had been arranged by switching on the power from the Opunake generating station, and by obtaining a supply from New Plymouth, through Okato, as had been done for years before the linking-up with Stratford through Te Kiri. The thunder storm was reported not to have been severe around Stratford, where the electric supply was not affected. At New Plymouth the only effect was a flickering of lights about 6.30 p.m. Evidently the storm was more severe on the southern side of the mountain. It was stated that the telephone lines from Hawera to Dawson Falls and from Hawera to Kaponga were out of commission last night.