After 11 days, family’s lights come back on
After 11 days without power following a massive storm, a West Auckland woman is finally celebrating with a hot shower.
Kasha Klee’s Kelston house was one of just five throughout the region still without electricity on Saturday due to gale-force winds on April 10.
About 180,000 Auckland region properties were affected by what lines company Vector called the worst network damage in a decade.
Relief came on Saturday, when Klee’s neighbour told her a linesman was working near their home. By 6pm, the family was overjoyed to receive word that their power had been restored.
Klee said the situation became so dire that she and her partner uprooted their children – aged 3 years and 6 months – to go and stay with family in Hamilton.
They lost power 11am on Tuesday, April 10, before the worst of the weather, ‘‘so we were already powerless when the storm hit.’’
Extension cords from a neighbour’s property kept their fridge cool. ‘‘We just trucked along for the first few days, showering at the neighbours.’’
The family left Auckland on April 13 to stay with Klee’s partner’s family.
‘‘Anyone with a family would know what it’s like to have to leave your home and everything you know, and take the kids away from their toys and their space and go to a new place,’’ she said.
‘‘What made it so much worse was not knowing [when] we could return.’’
Klee said she missed the things people take for granted, like boiling a jug, making toast and ‘‘just being warm and cosy in your own home’’.
Yesterday morning, Vector spokesman Iain Butler said all of the properties that had lost electricity had now had their power restored.
However, some other sites that had suffered outages in the following days were still in the dark.
Earlier, the company admitted its customer service systems were insufficient, following widespread frustration over the inaccurate power restoration times showing on its app.