Powerlines were damaged causing widespread power cuts and White Rd near Richmond was closed on Thursday morning after trees were blown across the road after heavy rain and strong winds overnight.
Contractors were clearing trees on Thursday morning and the road was soon reopened. In Redwoods Valley, 450 customers lost power at 10.40pm on Wednesday when strong winds caused trees to contact power lines.
Four hundred customers had their power supplies restored by 11.30pm with most of the remainder re-connected by 2am A further three customers are still without power but Network Tasman’s contractors are working to restore power to them on Thursday.
Two hundred and fourty customers in the Atawhai area lost power for 1.5 hours, again due to trees contacting power lines.
In Moutere township, a tree blew into power lines resulting in a broken power pole and 250 customers losing power at 10.30pm with power restored by 3.45am to everyone apart from one customer and work is continuing on Thursday to restore power.
There were a number of smaller faults throughout the district due to the storm. Network Tasman’s staff and contractors worked in difficult conditions to restore power supplies.
But there could be more to come with the MetService issuing a gale warning for the marine area Abel with north-west winds up to 35 knots and rough seas with up to 2m swells and the possibility of some thunderstorms.
The MetService forecast for Nelson was for the showers to clear this morning with a south-west change, strong at times.
