Teams are out in force across the Nelson Tasman region working hard to clear roads, assess and fix infrastructure and environmental damage. Photo: Nelson Tasman Civil Defence
A severed fibreoptic cable is behind a mobile phone and internet outage across large parts of Golden Bay, in Tasman, which has also affected 111 calls since early this morning.
It comes as the Nelson Tasman region extended a state of emergency for another week after it was besieged by rain and floods at the weekend.
More heavy rain expected on Thursday had so far not eventuated, much to the relief of residents.
By 5.56pm all services had been restored, with provider Chorus saying that planning for a permanent fix was under way.
Chorus technicians found a fault on a fibre line running over Takaka Hill caused by a slip, that resulted in an estimated 1150 households in Golden Bay losing internet and mobile coverage for most of Thursday.
The technicians found a severed cable at Uruwhenua Bridge on State Highway 60 and were currently working to repair it and restore services, including emergency calls to the 111 system.
Chorus said the fault impacted 350 copper connections and 800 fibre connections.
It brought in technicians from other areas to help find the fault as quickly as possible in difficult weather conditions.
"Our field teams have quickly mobilised to the fault site and are working to identify the cause of the outage," it said in a statement on Thursday.
"Priority will be given to faults that affect multiple customers or involve medical or emergency needs.
"Additionally, because Chorus' fibre network supports many of New Zealand's mobile towers, restoring mobile coverage is also a focus."
Chorus apologised to affected customers for the inconvenience caused by the outage and said it appreciated everyone's patience while it worked to restore connections as quickly and safely as possible.
"While we are focused on restoring affected connections quickly, our priority is the health and safety of our staff, contractors and the public."
Nelson Tasman Emergency Management said earlier on Thursday it was aware of the fault on the Chorus communications network and advised anyone with an emergency to still try ringing 111.
"Currently, the 111 network is intermittent as the issue is being worked on, and we hope it will be resolved soon but, in the meantime, if you have an emergency please keep trying.
"People should still try to call 111 if their mobile network is down."
The Telecommunications Forum chief executive Paul Brislen said there was a cut to the fibre line running over Takaka Hill that was likely caused by a slip.
He said people with no cell phone coverage in Tasman should still try to call 111 if they needed to in an emergency, because another mobile network provider might carry the call.
"There's no damage to any of cell phone towers or to the power supply so once that fibre fix is completed that should reconnect all of those phones and all of those cell phone towers," he said.
Civil Defence said Golden Bay residents should ask a neighbour for help in an emergency if they can't get through to 111.
Civil Defence controller Alec Louverdis said with the repair was a temporary fix and should be in place before the end of the day.
He said there were few alternatives to calling 111 for people who needed emergency services.
To make temporary repairs contractors would have to use an excavator which meant there might be some interruptions to traffic, however traffic management will be in place.
"In the meantime, if you do have an emergency situation and can do so safely, make your way to the Takaka Fire Station which is staffed and has resources and communications."
The Tasman District Council said on Facebook it was aware of the fault and reassured residents the situation was being resolved as quickly as possible.
Meanwhile Emergency Management Minister Mark Mitchell said he had asked his officials to work closely with Chorus to restore the services for Golden Bay.
He said a lot of planning had been done in preparation for the weather and he expected to be heading back to Tasman tomorrow, "depending on what unfolds in the next few hours".
"The constant message is: please don't go into flood waters because they are dangerous," Mitchell said.
"Update yourself regularly on information, and please follow any instructions, especially from our first responders, or even if there are contractors and road workers out there and they block a road. They're doing it for a reason."
Mitchell said the government's focus was on the immediate response but was also assessing what additional support would be required.
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