As one of the updates in the middle of Stuffs live update stream there is
"Drone helping restore internet
A commercial drone helped in restoring the internet to an Auckland suburb
after Friday’s floods brought down two cell towers and washed out the
only bridge that could access it.
Assisting Chorus, telecommunications company UCG and Point Zero, used a
drone on Sunday after contractors found the bridge at Riverhead had collapsed.
Conditions weren’t safe for contractors to reconnect fibre cables with
the challenging terrain, and heavy torrent from the Rangitopuni stream.
UCG regional manager Mike Mehra said fibre cables were below the bridge
and couldn’t be accessed.
“We didn’t have a plan to get the cables across, the only possible way
was to go under the stream which was impossible,” Mehra said.
“Point Zero came up with the idea of the drone real quick, and after
risk assessments were done, we went ahead with the job.”
The drone was used to draw rope to carry the new fibre cable from one
side to the other, of the washed out bridge.
“This was the first time we’ve ever used a drone to do that. It was innovative and helped lay the work we needed to restore the internet
to that area.”
Mehra said contractors worked all throughout the day and were able to
restore the internet by 11pm.
“It wasn’t a normal scenario but if anything like this happens where
we need emergency restoration of cables, we need innovative ideas
like this to help us.”
He said they may use a drone again, with a couple of bridges still
down because of flooding.
Reporting by Torika Tokalau."
This is how NZ used to be, in those days fix it with some number 8 wire.
Hat off to the folks who did the repair, not at all easy trying to this
while battling the elements.
Pictures of it. Looks like they have used a tree as the far "pole" for the cable.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/weather-news/300795553/live-emergency-management-announces-latest-as-heavy-rain-arrives
Scroll down.
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