One man with a chainsaw and the grim determination to hike through the dark was the reason more than 11,000 households got power back on the night the second storm hit the region.
That was just the beginning of a two-week slog for Network Tasman and its contract field workers to rectify the region’s electricity distribution network after the second flood and falling trees took out power poles and lines.
Operations manager Robert Derks describes the combined two floods as one of the biggest events the company has faced, and the cost will be well north of $1 million.
In the control room that Friday night of the second flood, he says they knew the storm was going to cause trouble and the magnitude of it hit them when sections of the network began dropping off in quick succession.
“We were sitting in the control room and waiting to see what would happen next, and we started to see different sections of the network shutting off and it was happening very fast. We lost about six feeders (sections) in about 10 minutes, which is unheard of.”
Contract field work is handled by infrastructure specialists Delta, and while crew could examine the problems that night, Robert says it was too dangerous to do much until the rivers had stopped rising and there was light.
Apart from a fault affecting Motueka and Golden Bay, where a tree had fallen over a major line and one line mechanic set out to find the fault and was able to clear it.
“About 11,600 people got power that night because of him. That was massive.”
As a helicopter flew over the region at first light, many sites of faults were flooded or power lines had been washed out by slips.
Though Robert says they were able to get power back on quickly for the majority of the region, it has taken two weeks to rectify the damage from the second flood in some of the smaller valleys.
Frustratingly, he says crews were replacing poles in some areas that had only just been replaced after the first flood. Like Pretty Bridge Valley, where the first flood washed out three poles and a crew had to return after the second flood to replace two of them again.
Hoult Valley was another area where poles proved no match against mother nature.
“Little streams became big rivers. When these events come in, you don’t know where it is going to dump. It’s very reactive. You just get your people ready and wait to see what happens.
“The field crews have been amazing. Delta pulls in contractors and subcontractors to help them. Bulldozers are really handy – and big diggers.”
Not the sort you use every day, and in these sorts of events everyone wants them at once.
“That’s where Civil Defence helps. If we get short and say we need a bulldozer, they can sort something out because during a state of emergency they have powers.”
At Delta, regional manager Stephen Gibbons says he has never experienced anything as widespread as the recent storms – anywhere in New Zealand. While some events in the past have caused more localised destruction, this covered such a big area and needed crews in all directions.
Line mechanics were brought in from around the South Island to help get power restored and give local crew a rest after working 14-hour days in the wake of the second flood.
“It’s very, very intense,” Stephen says.
“You rely on old-school knowledge with people who have been here for years – that geographical knowledge is invaluable. Knowing who owns that paddock and who has a bulldozer big enough to create a road to get access to a site to plant a pole.”
Finally, it’s time for a breather after what Robert describes as “a crazy few weeks”.
