While thousands of Southlanders were still waiting for the lights to come on last night, Lumsden was celebrating with the locals coming “out in their droves” to celebrate once power was restored.

Whistle Inn owner Denise Bower says she’s inundated tonight.

"Power’s been back on all day and they’re out in their droves,” she says.

“We’ve been that busy with a packed restaurant and dining room since opening at 3pm. I can’t get rid of them. They want to stay all night,” she says.

She even had patrons who made the trip up from Winton just to charge their phones.

“They said it looks like they’ll have no power until Tuesday.”

The pub is closing down for good on Sunday, so it was a nice final hurrah for the locals.

“I’ve got the Balfour Young Farmers all here tonight (noise in the background). They’ve been among the good clientele who’ve supported me this past two and a half years,” Bower says.

Southland District Council Mayor Rob Scott says as of lunchtime today there were “at least 200 farms unable to milk”.

“That’s quite significant. It’s partly why we declared a state of emergency and there’s talk of using the Air Force to fly generators down.”

Many farmers were sharing generators, some even sharing their dairy sheds.

Powernet was also working with the providers of 22 cellphone towers.

Residents in Ohai, Mossburn and Tuatapere were still having water problems too.

“Everyone’s got issues,” he says. “Power is still down across the district.”

He believed Winton may have had a flicker of hope later tonight, seeing lights on as he drove through.

“Power may come and go. There are still some gaps and potentially areas that could be without power for a few more days.”

Tuatapere, Otautau and Riverton were still without power.

He’s been impressed with how resilient Southlanders have been and how help agencies have pulled together.

“It’s been a huge collaborative effort. We’ve had the Rural Support Trust and key stakeholders together working on helping the community,” he says.

“Southlanders look after, and look out for, each other. They’re a resilient bunch, in good hands with themselves and the authorities and services."

“I think some townies don’t understand. Farmers have done a great job supporting each other.”

He says a lot of people are working hard to get power restored.

Powernet teams, roading contractors, telecommunications staff and fire crews have been working all day to help get electricity restored, massive trees cleared off roads and internet reconnected.

Fire and Emergency New Zealand southern communications shift manager Blair Walklin says it’s been “considerably less chaotic” with today being mainly a clean-up day.

“It’s been a day of post weather-related incidents, assisting with downed lines and trees.”

While power had been restored to many areas, smaller communities like Ohai, Nightcaps, Tapanui and Owaka were still without power.

Southland District manager Julian Tohiariki says FENZ was back to normal response levels and everyone was looking forward to having their power restored.

People in many parts of rural Southland and parts of Invercargill remained without power, although Te Anau finally had their power restored late last night.

“There’s a big job ahead,” he says.

Gore consumers had electricity restored but Mayor Ben Bell says that while the town’s water is safe to drink the council is monitoring the nitrate situation.

The lack of power had affected pumping from the river and while power had been restored the council was urging people to fill containers with water just as a precaution.

There would be further updates later tomorrow (Saturday).

Emergency Management Southland spokesperson Adrienne Henderson says while they had requisitioned a lot of generators that had been prioritised for watewaster treatment, health services like rest homes and hospitals, and supermarkets, they were hoping there would be additional generators for farmers.

EMS has been in touch with Federated Farmers and had discussions regarding their need for generators that are available in the north, but just how they would get them south was being worked through.