Power surge continues to bring cold comfort

Canterbury power lines company Orion New Zealand is unlikely to chase the owner of a fallen tree that caused a huge power surge on part of Banks Peninsula.

The pine tree on road reserve above Charteris Bay was "most likely" owned by the Christchurch City Council, council transport and greenspace manager Alan Beuzenberg says.

The massive surge of electricity early on March 5 affected more than 100 houses, destroying appliances and blowing circuit boards worth tens of thousands of dollars.

Orion said the tree split and fell, causing a high-voltage 33-kilovolt line to touch an 11kV line.

Chief executive Roger Sutton said yesterday he had heard insurance companies were processing claims from those who sustained damage in the surge.

He said Orion was unlikely to claim compensation from the council, which owns 89.27 per cent of the lines company.

"The tree owner clearly would have a liability had the tree been close to the lines, or if we had asked the tree owner to trim the tree and a person refused," he said. "But in this case the tree came from the other side of the road from the lines, so it was an `act of God'."

The power surge has made school camp even more challenging for several classes of Linwood College pupils staying at Orton Bradley Park. They have been forced to shiver under cold showers during the past week.

Outdoor-education manager Pete Ozich said the park's gas water heaters were blown up by the power surge, and the park was waiting for replacement units from Auckland. "We've got 120 kids here from Linwood and they are having cold showers and having real problems.

"As part of the outdoor activities they are in the sea, and they have saltwater all over them ... So the consequences are still going on.

"The park is a charitable trust. They are giving Linwood College a substantial discount because they can't give them warm showers, so they're losing hundreds and hundreds of dollars."

- © Fairfax NZ News