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Source: ONE News -
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About 150 homes are shivering through their fourth day without power after a freak snow storm brought down power lines across rural Hawke's Bay and Taupo on Sunday.
Power company Unison says it has been scrambling to reconnect customers.
The company's customer relations manager Danny Gough says that 455 homes had been cut off, and power had been restored to all but 150 by Tuesday.
"Obviously we'd like to have had everybody reconnected, but unfortunately we still about 150 customers still without power ... due to the conditions and some of the challenges that (line workers) are facing with the terrain and also the debris."
A helicopter is being used to repair a supply line that connected a large number of homes in the area, Gough told Radio New Zealand.
It is hoped that the remaining customers will be reconnected on Wednesday.
The Desert Road continues to be closed on Wednesday morning due to heavy snow.
Police are also urging drivers to be cautious on the Napier-Taupo road, which reopened about 6pm Tuesday.
Heavy snow closed the highway on Sunday night trapping 700 travellers who were put up in emergency shelters in Napier and Taupo.
They were able to return to their vehicles last night and continue their journeys.
Four vehicles blocking the road at Waipunga, 50km southeast of Taupo, had not been claimed.
They will be towed to Taupo and stored there until their owners could be located, Taupo District Council says.
New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) operations manager David Bates says contractors have been working 24 hours a day to clear snow from the highway.
They will continue to apply grit and de-icing agent and monitor the road's conditions.
The cold weather has wiped out hundreds of newborn lambs and farmers have been urged to ensure lambs, and their mothers, have access to shelter.
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