Locals not told of power cuts | Wairarapa News | Local News in Wairarapa

Lansdowne residents were furious  this week after  power to their
homes  cut out and  they learned hours later the interruption was
planned  but they had not been told.

Power was lost to Titoki St families for six hours from 9am
Monday as workmen replaced  power poles and lines.

 Residents said it was only determined what was happening
when they approached Tenix staff on the site and even then con
fusion reigned as nobody seemed to know what  notice, if any, had
been given.

Simon Mill said he and his wife, Mandy, had just returned from an
overseas trip and initially  thought a flyer alerting the neighbourhood
must have arrived while they were away, when their mail was
being cleared by friends.

Discovering that was not the case, he telephoned his power-supply company, but got no joy. 

``Genesis firstly wanted to know if I lived anywhere near Carterton, although I had clearly told them my address was in urban Masterton,'' Mr Mill said. ``Then I
was asked if that was near Egmont Village, so I finally suggested the woman answering
the phone should get a map of the world and study it.''

 He had been left not knowing if the fault lay with the power-
supply company, the lines company or someone else.

 Water supplies to the subdivision had been cut  because  the
supply relied on power-driven pumps that had closed down, so
people living in the subdivision had lost  power and water, he said.

He had spoken to a crew trying to restore the water supply and
they   told him  they also  had no advance warning of the  power
break.

``Someone needs to sharpen up their act. I spent an hour and a
half ringing various people to try and establish whether it was an
emergency or not. It was unbelievable.''

A neighbour of Mr and Mrs Mill had a slow cooker on in readiness
for an evening meal when returning from work.

``I presume they would have found the corned beef remained
uncooked,'' Mr Mill said.

Another man living in the street said his inquiries had
revealed that nobody in the area had been told of the planned
power cut:

``I don't know if there are people living in the neighbourhood who rely on a dialysis
machine or other life-supporting equipment, but they would have
been in dire straits if that was the case.'' 

Powerco network operations manager Phil Marsh said an
 administrative error  was to blame for the situation.    He said Powerco
apologised for customers not being notified of the power cut and had
taken steps to make sure ``a repeat of this type of error does
not occur in the future''.

 Power had been cut to about 50 customers to allow contractors to
replace poles, cross arms and insulators on the company's electricity network,  Mr Marsh said.