New Zealanders Kept In Dark

The only hum and throb in downtown Auckland these days is the sound of diesel generators battling the blackout. The only bustle is fuel trucks refilling them.

Otherwise the streets of New Zealand's largest city are nearly deserted, its shops and offices shuttered by a power failure now in Day 6 and counting.

Indoors, New Zealanders fumble in the dark, drag themselves up the stairs of high-rises whose elevators are idled, turn up their noses at heat-soured milk and blame the city officials who let growth outstrip the overworked electric company's ability to keep up.

"Its been very busy," said one diesel trucker, Ron Nolan, as he ran a greasy finger down a ledger and tallied 150 fuel stops in the past 24 hours.

Downtown Auckland is almost a ghost town, the victim of a self-inflicted disaster all four underground power cables supplying electricity to downtown from a hydroelectric plant south of the city have been out of order since Friday.

This city of one million people has grown for years but growth has outstripped infrastructure. When the strained cables started failing, power company Mercury Energy had no backup system. The first cable failed on Jan. 22, the second on Feb. 9, the third and fourth on Feb. 19 and 20.

The company's aging cables were stressed in a recent heat wave. Mercury's energy director John Collinge also said the company had recently halved its work force.

"All these factors don't say that maintenance was at fault, but they point very strongly to that," Collinge said.

Partial service may be restored Monday with rolling blackouts in downtown neighborhoods if one cable is fixed. But full service isn't expected until March 9 or later, company spokesman Richard Gibbons said.

The government has ordered an investigation.

Residents and businesses are struggling in the meantime.

In harborside office buildings where generators are providing partial power barefoot employees in short sleeves swelter as the sun blasts through windows that don't open. Generators are too weak to power air conditioners or more than one elevator at a time.

"We're lucky. At least we've got jobs," said Kate, a worker at Alan Smythe Special Events, in a harborfront office building. "My friend who works at a bar in Queen Street just lost her job. The beer is warm and the ice has melted."

About half the small businesses, bars and restaurants downtown are closed. Many of bigger businesses have removed files and computer disks and relocated to suburban branch offices or to the capital, Wellington.

American Express sent nine of its 18 employees to Wellington this week and plans to send more. In the central library, bibliophiles groped through the darkness or used flashlights loaned to them by librarians to find books until frustration forced it to close Wednesday.

Hamish Haldine, who lives on the 14th floor of a building without ower for elevators, said even a simple shopping trip for milk was a nightmare.

"The staircase is hot, enclosed and has no ventilation," he said.

About 10 percent of the normal downtown power supply is getting through on the one remaining cable and it is reserved for emergency services such as hospitals.

When the blackout first hit on Friday night, Auckland Hospital was plunged into darkness while surgery was underway in three operating theaters. Dr. David Sage, director of the operation rooms, said it took up to 25 minutes for the hospital's generator to restore power. No one was hurt.

Most of downtown business which had meat, milk or other perishables have dumped them or sent it to other locations before they spoiled.

City officials told residents at a public meeting Wednesday that a contingency plan had been prepared to evacuate the about 6,000 people who live downtown if the situation gets worse.

"We have had people trapped in elevators, overcome by fumes, there have been fires ... " Mayor Les Mills told the crowd. "People have been hurt."

No injuries have been serious.