Trees take brunt of high winds

NATHAN CROMBIE | 27th November 2006

Trees toppled by gale winds in Masterton and Carterton yesterday afternoon cut power to homes in both towns and left other trees uprooted and teetering.

Soon after 2pm yesterday a 40m poplar bordering a Pokohiwi Road property east of Masterton was blown over in gusts that reached up to 90km/h in some parts of the region.

Powerco workers and arborists were working to restore power and clear the site on the back of a similar outage that struck Carterton only an hour earlier, knocking power out to half the town.

A second 40m-tall poplar immediately beside the fallen tree in Pokohiwi Road was teetering as the work began and crews were forced to fell the second tree.

John Cummings, owner of J & L Cummings Treescaping, said the standing tree was threatening to fall when his crew arrived, swaying in the high winds and uprooting itself as they worked.

He said the top of an ash tree had broken off in Carterton, landing on high voltage lines and shorting out the Clareville substation shortly after 1pm.

Powerco workers cleared the tree damage in Carterton. Powerco spokeswoman Greta Shirley said electricity was cut to about 1000 Carterton homes for half an hour yesterday afternoon.

At 9am yesterday, a tree struck lines in Riversdale Road, cutting power to five Masterton homes for about five hours.

The emergency tree-felling at the Homebush site yesterday comes after his company worked more than 20 hours straight earlier this month dropping an even larger poplar that was threatening lines at Tinui.

Five power poles were knocked over near the Taipo forestry block, he said.

Des Limbrick, a retired farmer and long-time Pokohiwi Road resident, said the poplar tree that was blown over yesterday is in a disputed area of land that borders his property.

The fallen tree destroyed several metres of his fence, he said, and the second tree that was felled had also damaged the fence and another smaller chestnut tree on his property.

"Ownership to the land is in dispute ? we call it no man's land. The council were warned five months ago the trees there are condemned, and they're the trees that caused all this.

"My wife has been on to the council all year about the dangerous trees, and there were a bunch closer to the lines that council knocked over earlier this year. But we reached a stalemate over ownership and look what's happened now," he said.

Mr Limbrick said he and his wife Marie had been worried about the trees for more than a year, and considered them "a threat to lives as well as property".

He said the former Masterton County Council had used the disputed area to dump road clearings, and there was an accessway there to a separate block of land further from the road.

High winds could continue in the region for several days, according to MetService forecaster Cameron Coutts. Winds had blown up in the wake of a slow-moving front and had turned south westerly, with gusts up to 81km/h clocked at East Taratahi yesterday afternoon and 90km/h on Rimutaka Hill.

He said gale winds and scattered showers are expected from tomorrow until Wednesday, after easing slightly on Monday.