A dark night's ahead for the third of Northland still without power tonight

There've been major, widespread outages across Northland since this morning, when a transmission tower toppled over at Glorit, northwest of Auckland.

Transpower expects two-thirds of Northland will have electricity tonight.

But Energy Minister Simeon Brown says the remainder won't have power until tomorrow night, at the earliest.

He says Civil Defence is working with the councils to ensure they can reach out to vulnerable communities.

Northpower says much less power is available tonight, than normal - so it's leaving the hot water off for everyone.

People should treat all power lines as live, and switch off devices to prevent surge damage when power returns.

Whangarei District Council's public water supply's also down - and some areas may run out completely.

Police are managing traffic on main roads, and intersections without working traffic lights.