Headline 1: Welcome start to day after storm : "Many parents and pupils of Foxton Primary School had endured 24 hours without electricity. On discovering their plight acting principal Ani Rauhihi yesterday extended a warm welcome and breakfast in the warnth of the school staff room...."

Headline 2: The meals must get through : "With no electricity, winds gusting up to 130kmh and 45 elderly customers relying on their meals being delivered Levin cook Sonia Finlayson took the bull by the horns and got the job done on Wednesday...."

Headline 3: A night in the dark : Brooke Williams (9 yrs), Hone Smith (9 yrs) and Joseph Edmonds (8 yrs) from Foxton tell how they spent their night without electricity in Foxton.

Photographs: 1. Joseph Edmonds (8 yrs), Hone Smith (9 yrs) and Brooke Williams (9 yrs) tucking into breakfast at Foxton Primary School, 2. Sonia Finlayson from Marion's Meals on Wheels. 3. Truck blown onto its side on SH 56 north of Shannon, 4. Brooke Williams, 5. Hone Smith and Joseph Edmonds.

Headline 1: Race on to restore electricity. "Heavy rain yesterday hampered relief efforts to restore electricity tio isolated Horowhenua residents after 100 millimetres of rain in the Tararua Ranges...."

Headline 2: Good samaritan turns adversity into opportunity. "Foxton man Nigel Williams not only cleaned up the Foxton Primary School grounds but turned the exercise into a fundraising venture..."

Photographs: 1. Nigel Williams cutting firewood at Foxton Primary School, 2. Tree and other debris banked up in the Foxton River and 3. Fulton Hogan contractors cutting branches away from high voltage powerlines in Shannon.