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Hundreds of Auckland and Waikato properties remain without power after a fierce storm��battered the upper North Island.����

At its peak, more than 50,000 electricity company customers across both regions were��without power��on Wednesday.����

Vector said the��areas without power in Auckland��had now been reduced to “pockets”.��

“Significant progress was made overnight but there are still some pockets without power, mostly in the north and west.”��

Vector said it has contacted customers to keep them informed of progress.��

“Crews will be working hard throughout the day and we expect to have restored power to the vast majority of customers this evening.��

“We understand that power outages are frustrating and inconvenient, and thank our customers for their patience and understanding as we work to get their power back on.��

“At its peak, around 24,000 customers were without power – this represents around 4 per cent of our customer base and was over a very short time when it was unsafe for our crews to be out responding.”��

Vector said all outages had been caused by fallen trees and vegetation, which makes them “tricky” to repair.��

“We’re reminding people to please stay away from any downed power lines or damaged network equipment and to call 111 if they see any.��

“We also ask that members of the public do not remove any fallen branches themselves.”��

Counties Energy said it had reduced the power cuts from more than 200 properties yesterday afternoon to 44 faults today.��

“We currently have 44 individual faults scattered around the region affecting around 484 customers.��

“However, around half of that number is from new outages this morning. We have 150 customers still impacted from the storm – 34 active jobs remaining ...��

“These will be completed by nightfall – or we have generated power to complex fixes.”��

Counties Energy said the faults on the network from Wednesday are largely rural and are the result of tree debris/vegetation.��

“There are still a number of faults in the Waiuku and Awhitu Peninsula area and in the wider Karaka area.��

“Many of the remaining outages are complex fixes and require tree work.��

”Our faults resolution process is to make safe first, then restore as many properties as quickly as possible - we are now dealing with the individual, isolated and more complex fixes.”��

WEL Network outage map as of 1pm on Friday, May 31. Photo / WEL Network��

In Waikato, most people have had their power restored. About 22,000 customers were originally affected by the outages.��

WEL Networks said that after a “concerted effort from our teams” power was successfully restored to a majority of customers in the Raglan and Te Uku areas last night.��

“We are now down to low numbers of customers that remain without power and restoration efforts remain our priority today.��

“We’ve got all available resource working on this and we’ve called in contractor resource to help with the amount of damage we’re needing to repair.”��