Live: Widespread power outage in Northland after tower falls

Almost all of Northland is without power after a tower fell. 

Civil Defence Northland said one of Transpower's towers fell near Kumeū at around 11am Thursday. 

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"A Transpower service provider is on-site to assess the damage and the expected return to service time," it said. 

"The tower fell while a second transmission circuit supplying these areas was out of service for scheduled maintenance. Transpower is assessing how long it will take to return that circuit to service." 

Northpower told Newshub about 50,000 people are affected after it lost the main Transpower feed from Auckland.

Meanwhile, Top Energy, which provides power to the Far North, has around 30,000 customers without power, according to its outages map.

"Some areas are now running on backup generators. Please conserve power," Top Energy said on its website.

Northland resident and filmmaker Dave Shaw told Newshub there was heavy rain overnight, however, it was nothing the region wasn't used to. 

He said he was doing some water blasting during the day and suddenly the power cut. 

"We're so used to these power cuts off and on, interminate ones… but it sounds like it's going to be a long one," Shaw said. 

"It is a little bit of salt in the wounds learning that it's not a local issue, it's something from down the line from Auckland but hey, Auckland keeps us afloat during the summer periods so we can't get too upset." 

He's got a generator to keep his fridge going but for a lot of people, keeping food frozen will be a problem. 

Photos on RNZ show food quickly defrosting at Countdown and New World supermarkets in Kerikeri. 

The region earlier was under an orange heavy rain warning and severe thunderstorm watch however these have been lifted.

Newshub.