Internet services were cut for much of Central Hawke’s Bay and Dannevirke on Friday.
Chorus Head of External Communications, Steve Pettigrew, said at 1.48pm Friday, Chorus’ network operations centre started seeing errors reported on network links between Hastings and Waipukurau, and Hastings and Takapau.
He said technicians were dispatched and the cause was later confirmed to be a damaged fibre cable near Otane, this due to roadworks.
Approximately 2,400 residential and small business connections and about 30 business connections were affected.
Mr Pettigrew said the towns most affected by the fibre cut outage were Dannevirke, Otane, Onga Onga, Takapau, Waipawa and Waipukurau.
Work started on repairing the damaged cable at 6.30 pm, and internet services started to restore soon after.
Mr Pettigrew said the repair work was completed at 8.30 pm with all services restored.
Some Central Hawke’s Bay residents, who posted on the Central FM Facebook page said they were still without internet on Saturday morning.
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A driving incident at Central Hawke’s Bay College on Friday has seen Police make two arrests and impound a vehicle.
Sergeant Neil Baker said it was reported that a vehicle was driven onto the school grounds and driven in a manner which was extremely dangerous for students and staff who were at lunch during the incident.
An 18-year-old Waipukurau male and a 21-year-old Napier male have been charged in relation to the incident. and will appear in the Waipukurau District Court on charges of dangerous driving and driving while disqualified.
Mr Baker said Police commend CHB College staff for the promptness and manner in which this incident was handled to ensure the safety of all at the school.
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The 2021 Ross Shield Tournament kicks off today.
Central Hawke’s Bay has the opening game of the tournament, playing Hastings West at 11am.
Game two is Wairoa and Dannevirke at 1pm, followed by Hastings East and Napier at 3pm.
Under COVID Level 2 rules, no spectators are allowed at this weeks games, but they will all be livestreamed on the Sideline.Live app.
People are also able to head to the CHB Rugby & Sports Clubrooms to watch the games.
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There were two small earthquakes centered near Waipukurau over recent days.
The first was at 10.27 Friday night, measuring 2.9.
It was located 5km NW of Waipukurau.
The second occurred yesterday afternoon at 1.25, measuring 3.0.
It’s location was 20km NE of the town.
Geonet said both quakes had “weak” shaking.
