The clean-up after Cyclone Cook is still continuing across Napier and Hastings with some parks and reserves still closed to the public until they are considered safe again.
Hundreds of trees were felled by the weather event that hammered Hawke's Bay on the Thursday before Easter, and 15,000 customers lost power at the height of the storm.
The Napier City Council is still fielding the odd call from residents regarding fallen branches and the like but they had dropped off significantly in the last week, said Napier City Council team leader parks, reserves and sports grounds Debra Stewart.
"Napier City Council is continuing to respond to calls and utilising the services of Higgins, Superior Exterior and local arborists to help remove and secure trees," she said.
Sturms Gully, Plantation Reserve and part of Tiffin Park remained closed until detritus from the storm could be removed and the areas deemed completely safe for the general public.
"Our crews will be out over the coming weeks, too, to ensure that no further trees have been destabilised by the ex-tropical cyclone."
It had been a massive job, with more than 80 per cent of Hastings' 170 parks and reserves needing attention, said Hastings District Council parks manager Colin Hosford.
Over the weekend after the cyclone, clearing fallen trees from roads and powerlines was the first priority. Teams worked shifts over almost 24 hours for three days to get that work dealt with, he said.
After that the parks were checked for dangerous trees and limbs, with priority given to playgrounds and sports parks.
"One of the problems is getting the manpower we need. We have roads and parks teams across all our councils in the region looking to the same specialists; and there is also a big call on those same people from private property owners needing to deal with their own trees," said Mr Hosford.
"We have managed to bring two contracting companies on board, to supplement our in-house team of six, and they are all working extended hours to try and get through the work."
He said each of the worst hit parks took a long time to clear.
"At Frimley Park we lost eight trees with diameters of about 2m, in some cases bigger. These were very large trees that needed to be made safe; chopped up and removed. On top of that there was a huge amounts of downed tree limbs. As one of our councillors said: 'it looked like a war zone'."
It took a team of nine almost a week to clean that park up.
In some places branches had been collected into one space in a park, ready for collection once a team became available.
"We do ask parents to keep children out of these piles. We will get them cleared out as soon as possible."
With safety the priority, he said it would probably be another two to three weeks before the work was considered finished.