All calm at Clifton Camp No 2 on Monday morning. Photo / Rafaella Melo
A monster gust of 194km/h was recorded at one of New Zealand’s most isolated locations as Cyclone Vaianu’s tail blew through Hawke’s Bay.
MetService meteorologist John Law said the strongest winds in the region were recorded at Cape Turnagain in the early hours of Monday.
Law said the Tararua landmark – which regularly records eyewatering wind speeds – was “very exposed” and its observation was not representative of the wider area.
Winds at Mahia were strongest on Sunday afternoon, when the station recorded northeasterly gusts of 126km/h.
The highest rainfall of the event in Hawke’s Bay was recorded at Parks Peak in the Ruahine Range, where 253mm fell over 48 hours from Sunday.
The next highest was 164mm at Te Koau in the Kaweka Range.
Hawke’s Bay Regional Council recorded waves of 4.16m at Awatoto and 4.14m at Bayview during the event.
No widespread damage was reported in the region overnight and MetService warnings for Hawke’s Bay were no longer in force.
The localised state of emergency for Hawke’s Bay’s coastal areas, not including Wairoa, was lifted as of midday Monday.
Evacuees from Central Hawke’s Bay, Waimārama, Ocean Beach, Te Awanga and Haumoana were told they could return to their coastal Hawke’s Bay homes on Monday morning.
Many of the residents of the more than 500 homes told to evacuate stayed with friends and family, or at civil defence centres for two nights.
A Hawke’s Bay Civil Defence Emergency Management spokesperson said they’d made the call to allow all people to return home on Monday morning.
“There were limited tree falls, the sea swell was lower than expected, and fortunately, there was no flooding or damage to infrastructure.”
State Highway 2 between Wairoa and Muriwai was closed on Sunday afternoon because of fallen trees and weather conditions, but was reopened around 11am today.
SH50 Breakwater Rd in Napier reopened earlier after being closed on Sunday evening because of the risk of rockfall.
Fallen trees had brought down power lines and blocked roads across parts of Hawke’s Bay, according to Unison.
About 337 homes were at 7.30am today without power across its Hastings and Napier network.
A Unison spokesperson said crews had been assigned to all known damage sites and were also patrolling the network to identify and confirm the cause of any remaining outages.
“Teams will work through today to restore power to as many customers as possible, and the majority of customers are expected to be restored by the end of the day.
“There are, however, a small number of more significant damage sites that will take longer to repair. These include damage caused by fallen trees on Te Mata Peak Rd and Tauroa Rd, which are being further assessed today. There is also significant damage to power lines on Tukituki Rd in Haumoana, again caused by fallen trees.
“Customers around this fault have been restored, but repairs at this location are more complex and are expected to take several days to complete.”
According to Firstlight Network’s website, at 10am today, approximately 878 customers in Wairoa were experiencing unplanned outages because of the severe weather.
Rongomaiwahine Iwi Trust in Mahia was opening its doors to people affected by the power outage.
Centraline’s outage website showed 82 customers were still without power on Monday morning across its Central Hawke’s Bay network.
A Hawke’s Bay Civil Defence Emergency Management Group spokesperson said, overall, the region appeared to have come through the cyclone relatively well.
“The centre of the storm crossed the region late Sunday afternoon, and the weather conditions settled down.
“The main concern across Hawke’s Bay at this stage is fallen trees and branches, due to the strong winds, combined with heavily saturated ground.
“Council teams will be out from first light this morning carrying out assessments and clearing hazards where required.”
Although the cyclone had now moved well offshore, Civil Defence was asking people to continue to take care, particularly when driving, as there may still be debris or fallen branches on roads.
Emergency Management Minister Mark Mitchell said New Zealand had “dodged a bullet”, with the cyclone capable of causing far greater damage.
While the storm triggered evacuations, flooding, slips and power outages across parts of the North Island, he said preparation helped limit the impact.
“It’s been a major event for us. We’ve had 10 local states of emergency. We’ve actually had several thousand houses that were evacuated and about 14,000 that were without power.
“The good news was that everyone was well prepared, well positioned, and so we’ve been able to sort of keep those impacts to a minimum.”
