Extended power cuts for some parts of Christchurch

8:59 am on 24 February 2011

It will be well over a week before some parts of Christchurch have power again following the powerful earthquake on Tuesday.

The chief executive of lines company Orion, Roger Sutton, says supplies were restored to 30,000 more customers on Wednesday, but the task is getting harder.

Up to 95% of the western suburbs are connected again, but the damage has been so tremendous in parts of the eastern suburbs that many of the underground cables have been pulled apart, and it will take a while to find and repair them.

Mr Sutton says crews haven't even started on the central business district, which will take even longer to reconnect.