Thousands remain without power in the Bay of Plenty while fallen trees and road closures continue to affect the region in the aftermath of Cyclone Gabrielle.
Powerco head of network operations, Caz Haydon, said while reconnecting customers continued to be the priority, the ongoing stormy weather today was still posing challenges.
“We have every crew working to restore power, but flooding, slips and road closures as well as the ongoing high winds and heavy rain, continues to hamper efforts to access fault sites and carry out repairs. Until conditions settle and roads are cleared, our crews are unable to restore power for some of these outages.
“We know this is difficult for our customers to hear – particularly those who have been without power for some time – but the safety of our crews and customers is paramount,” Haydon said.
Image 1 of 16: Massive tree brought down in Memorial Park during fierce gales overnight on Monday. Photo / Sandra Conchie
Tauranga City Council said there would be disruptions around the road network today and detours would be in place due to debris and fallen trees from last night.
Bay of Plenty Regional Council engineering manager Mark Townsend told the Bay of Plenty Times the operations team had been out surveying flooding infrastructure - including stopbanks, floodwalls, floodgates and pump stations - and so far there were no issues to report.
He said along the coast, impacts of the storm were moderate but not as bad as anticipated.
”While waves did peak at 6.8m in some locations, the forecast winds didn’t arrive, which means coastal inundation was less than expected.
”He said due to the number of “at-risk communities” on the coast so they would be continuing to monitor the situation vigilantly.
Over 24 hours there was up to 160mm of rainfall in the Western Bay and 100mm in Rotorua and Eastern Bay.
He said this resulted in river levels rising overnight – most to within their normal channel capacity. As of this morning, they were receding, he said.
According to MetService data, wind gusts started to pick up in Tauranga after midday Monday and reached a peak about 9pm and 10pm of 91km/h before dropping after midnight.
A tree believed to be over 100 years old at Yatton Park was uprooted in the storm last night. Ash Macrae, who lived nearby, said her wife heard what sounded like a “crack of thunder then the whole house was shaking”.
”We thought we were going to lose the house,” she said.
The large tree fell away from the houses on the edge of the park, about 15m from where it was rooted.
Macrae said the family and their home appeared to be unscathed which she was pleasantly surprised with.
A tree that brought down a power line on Botanical Rd at the intersection with 19th Ave has been cleared, however, the power may be off for some time, the council said in a statement on social media.
The westbound lane of Cameron Rd between Arundel St and 5th Ave is closed due to a large tree blocking the road. The eastbound lane, towards the city centre, is open.
Yatton Park.
There is a detour in place on Devonport Rd between 9th and 10th Aves as a tree is blocking the road. There is a tree blocking the road on Waihi Rd city bound between Churchill and Montgomery.
The evacuation centre at Trustpower Baypark is now closed and no one needed it overnight, the council said.
Local marae opened their doors to a small number of people who self-evacuated.
Avalon Mikaere, who manned the Whetu Marae evacuation centre overnight, said nobody came in seeking support.
”I’m feeling very pleased because it means everybody is safe.”
Blankets, clothing and kai were available at the centre in Welcome Bay.
The council said teams were yet to assess the condition of the parks, reserves and walkways, but it was aware trees and branches had fallen, and there was damage to some beach access. All tracks on Mauao, including Te Ara Tūtanga (Mauao base track) and Moturiki (Leisure Island) remain closed.
”Signage and barriers are in place at all closure points. We ask that the public respect the signs and barriers in place as these are there for their own safety,” a council spokesman said.
Tauranga Golf Course is closed today and tomorrow due to the number of trees down.
Fergusson Park, Kulim Park, Beach Rd Reserve, Omanu Beach carpark, Pāpāmoa Domain, Taylor Reserve carpark and Harrisons Cut Beach Accessway are closed, including freedom camping areas in those parks.
A Devonport Rd resident, who would not be named for privacy concerns as she lived by herself, said she was worried about the pohutukawa trees lining the street. The woman said she could hear regular cracking of smaller branches snapping off in the strong gusts and she did not know much more wind it could take before the larger branches would rip off, which they did.
The woman said she was scared, especially as it was dark and she did not know whether it was safest for her to self-evacuate or stay put. The woman said she saw southbound traffic “driving dangerously” travelling on the other side of the road to avoid the branches.
This morning, the road was carpeted with broken branches and debris
Power outages
As of 6am, 19,502 customers were without power in the Bay of Plenty and Coromandel.
This included 118 in Whakamarama, 77 in the Lower Kaimai, 307 in Omanawa, 45 in Te Puna, 193 on Matakana Island, 186 in Tauranga, 113 in Bellevue, 765 in Maketu, 156 in Pukehina, 134 in Pongakawa, 52 in Paengaroa, 231 in Oropi and 272 in Te Puke.
Further north, 94 properties in Katikati are without power, 566 Athenree and 79 in Waihi.
The Thames and Coromandel area has been hit the hardest with 15,901 customers affected.
A helicopter is on standby this morning to help Powerco crews assess lines around the Coromandel, however, flights are dependent on conditions easing.
It’s expected that flooding, slips and road closures will continue to be an issue for crews trying to reach fault sites in the Coromandel today, a spokeswoman said in a statement.
Most of the outages were caused by high winds and trees bringing down lines, and reconnection efforts were hampered on Monday by the ongoing severe weather conditions as well as access issues meaning crews were unable to reach fault sites.
While all available crews will be reconnecting customers wherever possible, conditions remain challenging, and safety remains the top priority, the statement said. Powerco thanked customers for their patience and urged customers to continue to be kind and respectful to the crew.
Bay of Plenty Civil Defence has said the region was now past the peak of what it was expecting before 2am today and there were so far no reports of “significant inundation”, however, it said on its Facebook page there were impacts across the region with power outages, trees down and landslips.
”We will be able to get a fuller picture with the sunrise but until then stay safe and be vigilant.”
Highway closures
State Highway 2 through the Karangahake Gorge is closed and may be for some time today.
SH29 over the Kaimai Range on the Bay of Plenty side reopened this afternoon after contractors cleared fallen trees between Hanga Rd and Old Kaimai Rd. One lane is open in each direction with a temporary speed limit while PowerCo carries out repairs.
SH2 Gisborne to Opotiki is closed due to severe weather conditions and flooding. On SH35 Okitu to Opotiki, the road is closed due to severe weather conditions.
State Highway 30 between Rotorua and Kawerau and SH2 between Pukehina and Matata are closed due to slips and fallen trees this morning.
School closures
Ministry of Education deputy secretary Te Tai Whenua (central) Jocelyn Mikaere said there were 75 schools and kura closed in the Bay of Plenty/Waikariki region affecting around 25,600 students.
There were also 122 early childhood education providers that had shut. She said schools and early learning services were not required to inform the Ministry if they had closed.
Transport
Some bus services across the region are cancelled and all routes will have possible disruptions today, Bay of Plenty Regional Council public transport operations manager Chris Brewer said.
There are eight cancelled bus services today. This included Route 15 Murupara via Kaingaroa, Route 85 from Waihi to Katikati, Route 101 Whakatāne to Tauranga, Route 102 from Rotorua to Tauranga, Route 104 from Murupara to Rotorua, Route 105 from Tauranga to Rotorua, Route 143a from Whakatāne to Tauranga, and Route 150 from Pōtaka to Ōpōtiki.
Route 122 from Whakatāne to Ōhope has been shortened and the timetable will be impacted.
Brewer said all schools using the regional council buses decided to close today and these bus services were not running. Baybus would continue to operate other bus services unless the health and safety of passengers and staff was compromised.
Please be prepared for changes at short notice.
For the latest service information, visit Transit App or www.baybus.co.nz.
Earlier:
Residents in Waihi Beach, Athenree, Maketu and Pukehina were warned to stay on high alert overnight with Bay of Plenty Civil Defence concerned about coastal inundation - or flooding from the sea - for people living on the coast.
It reminded residents to stay on high alert after warnings were sent earlier saying they may be forced to evacuate.
A mandatory evacuation order was made to around 100 homes in the Whakatāne area around 3pm Monday after acting mayor Lesley Immink announced a state of emergency.
They were all homes in West End Ōhope, up to and including the Beach Point Apartment complex, and about nine homes identified on Harbour Rd, Port Ōhope that were particularly low-lying.
More than 350 properties needed to evacuate in Ōpōtiki due to concerns about coastal surges and inundation.
What is a State of Emergency?
The Bay of Plenty was under a regional state of emergency but this morning a national state of emergency has been declared by the Government in response to the impacts of Cyclone Gabrielle.
This covers the six regions across New Zealand which have declared regional states of emergency (including the Bay of Plenty).
This declaration does not affect what was already under way in the Bay, it just allows response teams the ability to move national resources across the country to help those areas that have been most affected.
This declaration enables the Government to support regions that have been most impacted and set priorities across the country for the response.
There is no way in or out of the Coromandel this morning.
All major arterial roads are closed, leaving the peninsula cut off.
Roads in the district are left flooded by metres of water, described by Civil Defence as “absolutely impassable”, while a third of the district is without power and “virtually every road” is closed.
Talking on Mike Hosking’s Breakfast Show, the chief executive of the Thames Coromandel District Council said practically every road had unconfirmed slips on them.
“It’s across the whole region, the whole district has outages in various places, slips in lots of places,” said Aileen Lawrie.
