U2 Helps Out In New Zeland Power Crisis
AUCKLAND (Reuters) - Irish rock band U2 Tuesday helped out citizens of New
Zealand's largest city, Auckland, which has been suffering from a 12-day
power outage.
The band, which is touring neighboring Australia, agreed to an impassioned
plea from Auckland's municipal power supplier to allow a giant cargo plane
to fly in from Sydney with generators.
"We negotiated with U2's concert promoters and the plane's operators,
explaining what the situation was and saying how much we'd appreciate any
assistance from the group," said Paul de Abaitua, a spokesman for Mercury
Energy.
Most of the world's heavy lifting planes were already in use due to
potential military action in the Gulf and hurricanes in Florida, de
Abaitua
said.
Central Auckland was plunged into darkness on February 20 when the last of
Mercury's four main power cables into the city failed. Full restoration is
not expected until March 9.
Auckland has about one million people, and one of its suburbs, "One Tree
Hill," inspired a song of the same name on U2's "The Joshua Tree" album.