By Michael Morrah
It's a slow and dirty job.
But fixing cables is crucial to guarantee power for thousands of Christchurch residents.
“This is a cable that could actually carry a third of the city's load, so it's a really, really significant cable,” says Orion CEO Roger Sutton.
Spare parts from Germany are needed to fix it - and work here could take another fortnight.
The cables they're trying to fix are made of two inches of solid copper, and that's encased in concrete. The fact those lines were broken or bent, gives some indication of the power of the earthquake
Generators are helping the situation in New Brighton.
Work will start tomorrow to get three kilometres of new overhead lines up to replace underground ones, restoring electricity back for up to 20,000 people.
But progress will be slow.
“I think for a large number of customers, it's going to be many weeks and perhaps months,” says Mr Sutton.
And without power, water remains a serious issue.
Half the city doesn't have any and many rely on volunteers trucking in supplies from areas like Rangiora.
One of those filling up is Woolston resident Shane Mcalister, who's also worried about a lack of food.
“Basically this is two or three days then we're going to have to throw it all out,” he says.
And without a functioning toilet, he's been forced to improvise.
“At the moment we haven't got power, water. We can't use the toilet. All we can use is what we've dug in the ground,” he says.
Across the road, there's growing frustration for Maggie Stringer and her 78 year old husband.
“We need power and a portaloo. We've got no portaloo and there's quite a lot of elderly people around here,” she says.
“Sometimes I've had four hot water bottles at a time, ee have a gas heater here but it takes a while for the body to heat up,” says Gerald Stringer.
Orion is urging people to be patient.
And in the meantime, it's the goodwill of people like Evan Coster that's helping.
Evan and his wife are using his dad’s ice cream truck to deliver free hot drinks and food.
And it's gestures like this that make a time of grief and hardship slightly easier to handle.
3 News
source: newshub archive
