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A burst pipe has caused a major slip in Point Howard, taking out a chunk of the road and displacing some residents overnight.
The slip resulted in a water outage for 165 homes in Point Howard and a power cut for 65 homes. Wellington Water asked residents of Point Howard to keep water use to a minimum and boil water before using for the next three days.
Emergency services advised residents to stay inside because of risks from a ruptured gas line and arcing power lines.
Wellington Water confirmed on Facebook that the slip was caused by a burst drinking water pipe early on Tuesday morning. In the most recent post, they reassured residents that plans were in place to restore water on Wednesday.
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Richard Armishaw, a resident of Howard Rd, said he reported the leaking water main before Christmas and Wellington Water inspected it three times. He believed it was an obvious risk which should have been made a priority.
Gareth Hughes, assistant commander at Avalon Fire Station, was at the scene on Tuesday afternoon. He said no one had been harmed and no properties had been damaged but power, gas and water had been cut off. Fire and emergency were called to the slip at 9.30am when it became clear that the power lines were a risk.
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A view of the slip from Stephen Catchpole’s Howard Rd property.
“First thing’s first, make sure everyone’s safe, make sure no one’s in the way of any slip getting worse. So that’s what we’ve done and we are now transitioning to working really closely with (Hutt City Council) … checking out a needs assessment of the residents in those ten adjacent houses and in houses that are further up Howard Rd,” Hughes said.
Wellington Water provided two tankers on Marine Dr for residents affected by the outage to collect water. They asked residents to conserve water, as only a temporary water line had been provided to Howard Point houses.
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