Os pongo un artículo de un diario on-line de NZ,..está en inglés, sobre la noticia:
Gales, snow, tornado: chaotic weather in NZ
June 12, 2006 - 7:05PM
Hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders were without power today as chaotic winter weather whipped up destructive gales and dumped snow across the country.
A sailor was lost overboard in Wellington, while schools, hospitals and businesses closed in Auckland because of a four-hour blackout.
More than 300 sets of traffic lights in the city failed, causing traffic gridlock and what police described as "lunacy" on the roads by some motorists going the wrong way and doing u-turns.
Electricity provider Transpower said the outages occurred after high winds snapped an earth wire, causing it to fall onto substation equipment - an "unusual" accident.
The city council warned more power cuts were possible tonight with forecast winds up to 120kmh.
The blackout in Auckland left business people fuming at the estimated loss of $NZ70 million ($59 million) in the worst such incident since the city's power crisis in 1998.
Prime Minister Helen Clark demanded answers.
"The question is, why is so much of Auckland dependent on one power line?
"I think it's a question the public is entitled to know answers to," Clark told reporters in Wellington.
"And it's a question the government would like to have answers to and we will be pursuing that matter.
Transpower apologised for the disruptions.
"It's very regrettable and and we're devastated by today's cuts," spokesman Chris Roberts told Radio New Zealand.
"The day didn't start off well with the storm moving up through the South Island.
"We've had problems and outages all over the country."
There are some cold nights ahead for some South Island residents not expected to get power back for up to four days after a huge dump of snow overnight.
The Canterbury region was worst hit with roads, schools and businesses closed and farmland and towns blanketed in up to a metre of snow.
It was described in some areas as the heaviest fall in 50 years. Even the Mt Hutt ski field was off limits to skiers.
Christchurch airport was shut down in the morning before snow was cleared from the runway.
Rough conditions in Wellington harbour saw a Chinese sailor swept overboard from an outward-bound tanker this afternoon.
A search was under way for the man but harbour officials were not optimistic about his chances of survival.
North of the capital an oil spill, heavy rains and gale force winds combined to close a 20km stretch of the main state highway.
A tornado hit the South Island town of Greymouth yesterday for the second time in 15 months.
The twister wrecked houses and was part of gale force winds and flooding which hit the island's West Coast and stranded a train for nearly three hours.
59 Respuestas
7581 Vistas