Updates

 

From Civil Defence

AUCKLAND CDEM UPDATE

The Auckland Emergency Coordination Centre remains activated in response to power outages in parts of Auckland.

Vector advise that approximately 18,000 customers remain without power this morning. Customers are mainly located in parts of Remuera, Saint Johns/Meadowbank, Mount Wellington, Sylvia Park and a small part of St Heliers. Vector request that customers in the east Auckland isthmus limit power usage so that more customers can be reconnected with back feeding. Vector worked through the night on affected cables and will have more certainty of actual restoration times later today.

Nine intersections remain without power across Auckland, four of these are presently manned by NZ Police for traffic control. Bus and rail services are running without disruption.

A number of cell sites are still down due to the power outage. Spark has 17 cell sites down as of 0900 hours but expect the majority of these to be running by 1300 hours. Vodafone have 19 cell sites down.

All hospitals are now on mains power. St John are working with individuals in the affected area that rely on medical alarms. Health services also have coordinated residential care teams working in affected areas to help vulnerable persons.

With the power outage extending beyond 24 hours, Auckland Civil Defence is requesting that businesses and residents be vigilant with food that may not have been chilled or has defrosted and refrozen in the affected areas.

Westerly winds are expected to be gusty in Auckland later today. Between 11am and 6pm, MetService expect that winds in exposed parts of the region could gust up to 100 km/hr. These winds are not expected to cause widespread damage but very localised power outages and trees down could occur during the afternoon.

Due to areas affected potentially changing with power demand and back feeding we will not be producing maps today. For information on which areas are currently out and expected restoration times check in here:http://vector.co.nz/outages

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People advised to take care with unchilled food

As some areas of Auckland continue to wait for power to be restored, there are health concerns over food premises and residents using food that may be spoiled.

To ensure that food operators and home cooks take care with food that has sat in fridges and freezers without power, Auckland Council Civil Defence and Environmental Health advises:

• If power was off for more than 24 hours, or chillers were opened, readily perishable food should be discarded;

• If power to fridges and chillers was off for less than 24 hours, and chillers were not opened during the power cut (or only opened briefly to add bags of ice) contents must be checked but should be okay;

• In all cases, food beyond its ‘use-by’ date code must be thrown out;

• Perishable foods in the chiller, for example fruit and hard cheeses, may still be safe to use if they are not showing obvious signs of spoilage;

• Partially-thawed food in the freezer should be completely defrosted and used immediately;

• Perishable food waste should be prioritised for disposal first, via your weekly rubbish collection. Store non-perishable waste for later collection;

• Food still frozen with ice crystals throughout can continue to be kept frozen if you are sure it did not thaw out and it was re-frozen when the power came back on. Frozen food that defrosted and was refrozen when the power was restored should not be used. (This will not always be obvious, but important signs of defrosting and refreezing are: mis-shapen products, drip from packaging that has become frozen, packages stuck together, or the pooling of frozen fluids in the bottom of sealed packages).

For more information please go to www.mpi.govt.nz

Food operators in the Auckland region that have concerns can contact Auckland Council on (09) 301 0101 and ask to speak to an Environmental Health Officer.

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More as it happens