Storm plays havoc with power lines

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32425, 12 October 1970, Page 1

Storm plays havoc with power lines

' Four large transformers were blown up by lightning and lightning strikes on power lines affected about 500 consumers in the Waimate township from about 4 p.m. on Saturday to 5 p.m. yesterday, according to the Timaru reporter of “The Press.”

Elsewhere damage to power lines was extensive, in what the South Canterbury Electric Power Board’s chief engineer (Mr F. C. Stevenson) termed the worst electrical storm ever experienced by the board and the most violent recorded in Waimate.

“The storm burst over the town,” said Mr Stevenson. A big transformer in the Hook district was damaged by lightning and 50 consumers were affected. Faced with a huge task, Power Board staff worked during the night until 9 a.m. At 6 a.m. in a raging southerly and in cold temperatures, gangs were again confronted with more faults. About 100 isolated power breaks occurred outside the Waimate borough where lightning affected lines . and transformer fuses and all the neighbouring districts were hit by the storm. Telephone and toil communications at Waimate and Geraldine were also disrupted. The Post Office District Engineer in Timaru (Mr P. B. Keys), said that in Waimate connections to 20 subscribers and six toll circuits were out of order. These were restored on Saturday (evening. About 100 subscrib-

ers’ lines at Geraldine were put out when lightning damaged fuses. Repairs were made yesterday. Alternating hail and rain showers were accompanied by thunder and lightning throughout South CanterU This morning north-west winds were gusting to 90 miles per hour at Mount John and 60 miles per hour at the Timaru airport. Hail lying Up to 4in of hail was lying in parts of the HawardenWaikari district and remained overnight in some places after a severe electrical storm on Saturday afternoon and early evening. Heavy hail also fell in parts of the Oxford district and the area was given a white coating. The storm at Oxford was followed by 42 points of rain and an 8 degree frost yesterday morning. The storm caused power breaks in parts of the North Canterbury Electric Power Board district and further power cuts were caused by a sudden wind change gusting up to 50 m.p.h. about midday yesterday. The storm interfered with the electricity supply to consumers in the Okuku, Whiterock and Glentui areas when fuses mainly to consumers’ individual transformers were damaged about 2 p.m. on Saturday, said the general manager of the board (Mr D. W. Harris). A ,20-minute supply failure occurred in the Oxford, Glentui, Okuku and Cust areas about 5 p.m. A “light-

ning strike” took out a 33,000 volt transmission line and this caused other localised transformer faults in the Springbank and Fernside areas. Sharp squall Southerly winds reached speeds of 47 m.p.h. at Christchurch Airport, and 81 m.pJi. at Kaikoura as a southerly squall travelled up the coast of the South Island yesterday. The squall struck Christchurch about noon, bringing high winds and scattered hail.

Boats on Lyttelton Harbour were upset, and a few telephone subscribers and power consumers were cut off for a time when a tree was blown across lines at the intersection of Bealey Avenue and Springfield Road. The squall also .brought a sharp drop in temperature: the Meteorological Office said yesterday that the temperature at Christchurch Airport dropped by 13 degrees to 50 degrees in a matter of minutes.

Yesterday morning a frost of 7 degrees was recorded at the airport. The sudden wind change caused breaks in the Okuku, Femside, and Loburn districts about midday yesterday for up to 45 minutes when a flying willow branch caused high tension lines to short circuit The main transmission line from Southbrook to Cust had to be taken out of service for an hour yesterday afternoon when a visual inspection of the line revealed a badly split 4in by 4in insulator arm.