More stormy weather on the way while 5000 Aucklanders still without power

Saturday, 14 April 2018

Fire crews help repair a property on Riverton Road, Manurewa after a tree fell on its roof during a downpour.

Around 5000 people are still without power in Auckland as persistent bad weather hinders restoration efforts.

More trees came down on Friday night and on Saturday, after they had been weakened by the storm earlier in the week

Further stormy conditions overnight Friday brought down more trees across the city, with some falling over power lines and cutting power to further residents.

'That was expected, we know the storm on Tuesday would have weakened some trees that stayed up but were vulnerable,' a Vector spokesman said.

Fire and Emergency NZ said they had a steady workload from Friday evening to Saturday afternoon, totalling about 60 weather-related callouts in the wider Auckland region.

MetService said an active front, positioned over the upper North Island, was producing a line of thunderstorms and heavy bursts of rain on Saturday morning.

* Over 100,000 Auckland homes left without power by storm, as snow falls further down country

* Roofs off, trees, powerlines down as Auckland takes hit from southerly storm**

Among the incidents was one in Manurewa, south Auckland, where a tree fell on a house before 2pm on Saturday. There were no injuries.

While most of those who had their power cut on Friday night had it restored by 8am on Saturday, the spokesman said about 11am there were still 5000 people across the city who have not had power for three days - down from 10,000 earlier on Saturday.

Hurricane-force gusts and heavy rain lashed the city on Tuesday night, bringing down hundreds of trees and leaving about 120,000 homes without power on Wednesday morning.

Winds also tore roofs off houses. In one case a tree fell onto a car with a woman inside. Among the most spectacular casualties, a three storey building site collapsed in Hobsonville.

A Vector spokesman said on Saturday morning they hoped to get the main 'back bone' of their network fixed over the weekend.

'We are hopeful that we are going to get the high voltage stuff done today, that's going to leave us with the individual outages and hot water work to do as well, and that will take us into the middle of next week.'

Police are helping Emergency Management staff by going door-to-door in the Auckland area, checking on the welfare of people in properties still without power.

Police warned that motorists should take extra care in the conditions.

'Sudden downpours can cause surface flooding in an instant – ensure you exercise caution and pay attention to your surroundings,' a police statement said.

MORE BAD WEATHER ON THE WAY

🌩 Waking up to a few rumbles this morning? 🌩 An active front positioned over the upper North Island is producing a line of thunderstorms and some heavy bursts of rain! There is currently a Severe Thunderstorm Watch in place https://t.co/GZIq9Jlbrw

^Tui pic.twitter.com/uYjIHQpUbX

— MetService (@MetService) April 13, 2018

Adding to Aucklanders' woes was fresh warnings for more bad weather on its way.

MetService said a rainband hanging over Auckland, the Coromandel Peninsula and northern Waikato meant conditions on Saturday were favourable for thunderstorms, downpours, flash flooding and slips.

'Some of these thunderstorms could be severe, producing localised downpours of 20 to 35mm per hour,' said MetService.

This was forecast to weaken in the afternoon or evening.