Hundreds still without power after strong winds

Strong winds have been blamed for power outages throughout the Bay of Plenty overnight. Photo / file

Power remains out for hundreds of people in the Bay of Plenty after severe winds ripped through the region overnight.

About 850 homes in Pukehina, Te Puke, Ōropi, and Tauranga are still without power.

Wind speeds of up to 80km/h were recorded in the Bay last night, with Rotorua seeing most of the heavy rain, according to MetService.

Meteorologist Melissa Oosterwijk said a frontal system passing through the Bay of Plenty overnight could have been the cause of strong winds in the region.

Oosterwijk said Rotorua had 19ml of rain and 6.6ml was recorded in Tauranga in the last 12 hours.

The heaviest downpour was recorded in Rotorua at about 10pm, when 6.4ml of rain fell in just one hour.

Strong northerly winds reached speeds of up to 50km/h in the Bay of Plenty, with gusts of up to 70km to 80km/h.

Oosterwijk said the heavy wind and rain was expected to ease by this afternoon, however, a few showers were expected throughout the morning.

"Tomorrow is looking more settled and it should be mostly sunny, with some sun this afternoon," she said.

Powerco stated there were still site investigations underway to determine the cause of this morning's outages but strong winds have been identified as the reason behind the loss of power in Ōropi.

The power outages follow other major cuts to more than 600 properties in Ōmanawa and Ōmokoroa last night.

Power went out in Ōmanawa at 7.43pm but power is understood to have been restored about midnight. A crash involving a vehicle hitting a power pole in Omokoroa Rd at 12.35pm yesterday left 238 properties without power until about 9pm.