NZ storm aftermath

Thousands still without power after storm

Tens of thousands of people remain without power as far north as East Cape as the front responsible for the wild weather this week moves up the country.

Radio NZ,

12 September, 2013

Severe weather warnings were active for parts of the Upper North Island on Thursday afternoon as the front moved north.

MetService meteorologist Chris Noble says the front is dying off but is still expected to bring strong winds and possible flash flooding to Bay of Plenty and Auckland later on Thursday.

He says the kind of damage seen further south is not anticipated, although Civil Defence is warning people in low lying areas of Auckland to have a getaway kit ready in case they need to be evacuated.

The storm brought trees and power lines down.

In the South Island, which bore the brunt of the storm, tens of thousand of customers remain without power, including 11,000 Orion customers in mid Canterbury.

The lines companies say crews are working around the clock now the weather has cleared to get power back on.

The companies say crews are focusing on major faults first, so some customers could be without power for a few days.

In the North Island, about 5000 customers are without electricity in Wairarapa and on the East Coast, but most of the power is expected to be back on by Thursday evening.

Air New Zealand says it is working to clear the backlog of passengers stranded after the storm caused flights to be cancelled.

Wellington Airport was closed to domestic flights on Wednesday night because of high winds and further flights were cancelled on Thursday because Air New Zealand had been unable to reposition its aircraft.

The airline said on Thursday morning it had a backlog of 2500 passengers from 23 cancelled flights.

Jetstar was not expecting any problems.

Waimate District Council chief executive Tony Alden says his region is facing a massive cleanup after it was hit by winds stronger than 200 kilometres an hour. 

He says pine plantations have been decimated and forestry blocks destroyed.

Mr Alden says he does not know at this stage how much the cleanup will cost.

State Highway 6 between Haast and Makarora is likely to remain closed until Friday because it has been blocked by a large slip.

The Transport Agency says the slip at Diana Falls, which is about 50 metres high and contains 500 tonnes of debris, has stabilised enough to make it safe to start clearing work.