Storm downs trees, cuts power around Whanganui

Thursday's storm brought trees down across the city including this one on Paterson St. Photo/ Stuart Munro

Power was cut, roads and parks closed and falling trees caused chaos around Whanganui on Thursday as the city was battered by high winds and rain.

Temperatures also dropped as the Central Plateu was caked in snow closing major roads.

The average wind speed in Whanganui peaked at 76km/h yesterday morning as temperatures hovered around eight degrees Celsius.

Authorities were stretched responding to the damage around the city with Whanganui fire brigade calling in off duty staff and backup from Ratana and Marton.

Whanganui fire senior station officer Craig Gardiner said they had probably attended 30-40 callouts by early afternoon, including a house fire and a car accident.

A man was lucky to escape uninjured after poplar tree fell on his 4WD as he was driving along state highway 4 just south of Upokongaro yesterday morning.

The tree hit the passenger side and of the vehicle which spun before it was hit by another car.

The driver was "lightly trapped" but uninjured.

"Very lucky man," Mr Gardiner said.

He said the fire service coped well despite the volume of work.

"We were under the pump there for a while.

"But I think there was only a backlog of two or three jobs which weren't life threatening.

"Normally when you get this kind of weather event you don't get a prang and a house fire in the middle of it."

Meanwhile, thousands lost power across the wider region including parts of St Johns Hill, Kai Iwi, Aramoho and Castlecliff.

There are also outages further afield in Ratana, Raetihi, much of Rangitikei and Patea.

Powerco spent the day restoring electricity around the region. Seafield Rd was blocked temporarily as a power line came down. Photo/ Stuart Munro

Kowhainui Home in Otamatea had power out from about 6am to 11am.

A spokesperson said the home coped well and had systems in place to deal with outages.

But they were pleased it was not out for longer.

"As you can appreciate it's not always easy with the number of people we've got on site but we've got some good support."

Back up generators were used for things like electric beds and gas cookers for food.

"Everyone's feed and watered and clothed. It's all back and the place is all nice and warm again.

"The staff reacted well to the situation and just adapted and the residents too. It's something a bit different."

Power was restored to different suburbs throughout the day while others were expecting to be in the dark into the evening.

The high winds bought trees branches down across the city with crews out in the elements clearing driveways and footpaths.

Selwyn Crescent resident Rae Wakeling said the fire brigade were on the street early in the morning.

She hadn't heard the tree outside her property fall but said "we were lucky".

"If it was a north westerly it could've blown on the house."

Winds brought down this Chronicle reader's fence

Whanganui District Council infrastructure general manager Mark Hughes said the district has suffered no major infrastructure damage.

Council staff had begun preparing for the storm on Wednesday morning, filling reservoirs to secure the town's water supply and fuelling generators.

"We carried out an inspection of all main culverts in the urban area to check they were free of obstructions," Mr Hughes said.

"All council crews and staff were prepared and ready to react to whatever the storm might bring."

Council's parks and infrastructure teams joined forces to manage fallen trees in the city.

At least 30 were removed.

"We expect more trees may come down yet, so we are still on standby to respond," Mr Hughes said yesterday afternoon.

Ruapehu District Council said snow in the area was falling at about 2-3cm per hour and all Downer snow-clearing vehicles were deployed.

Wanganui Chronicle photographer Bevan Conley and his family were snowbound by the weather at their holiday home in Horopito.

"I have no idea how long it will be before we can go anywhere," he said. "The only vehicles moving through here are snowploughs."

Mr Conley's family have been going there since the 1970s and it was the most snow he had seen.