Wind, rain bring more headaches
The Nelson region bore the brunt of a wild storm that swept across New Zealand on Saturday night and into yesterday.
Heavy rain and flooding trapped people in their homes, broke riverbanks and sent campers scrambling as the active front made its way down the country.
In Auckland, fire services responded to more than 200 weather-related overnight calls.
More than 15,000 homes were left without power as Aucklanders saw the first of the storm. By 3pm yesterday 9500 households in Auckland were still without power.
And the weather is still making its presence felt.
Heavy rain is expected for parts of the South Island, Mt Taranaki, the ranges of eastern Bay of Plenty and the Tararua Range, along with severe northwest gales for Wairarapa, Wellington and the Marlborough Sounds and severe southwest gales for coastal Otago and Banks Peninsula into today.
Metservice duty forecaster Cameron Coutts said the wet and windy weather would start to ease as it crossed southeast and over the South Island.
The weather also took an injury toll – a 40-year-old man was critically injured after a tree crushed a car on Auckland’s southern motorway, near Drury, about 9.50pm on Saturday.
It appeared a tree fell and crushed the southbound vehicle which was carrying seven people. The southern motorway was closed for a time.
Another person crashed their car to avoid hitting a tree which had blocked both lanes of the Coastal Highway in Appleby, Tasman, about 5am.
Police attended to the crash after the car rolled, but the person was not injured.
In the Thames and Coromandel region more than 5000 residents were without power yesterday morning, according to Powerco.
Blenheim escaped the worst of the storm, with light rain and not much wind.
However, people are hunkering down against wild weather in the Marlborough Sounds and across the Cook Strait.
A holidaymaker said a ‘‘huge amount of wind’’ blasted through the Sounds on Saturday night, and there were sheets of rain yesterday morning.
Severe north to northwest gales with gusts about 120kmh were expected in the Sounds yesterday.
Stormy weather overnight and late last week left Kaiteriteri camper Liz Davidson with a cracked rib, after the awning of their caravan collapsed from the rain.
The weather yesterday was ‘‘horrific’’, she said.
‘‘It was the worst I’ve ever come across.’’
About 250 Canterbury homes were without power overnight, as a tree brought down a power line at Little River.
Power was restored to most homes by 9am.
Orion reported about 35 homes near Duvauchelle remain without electricity.
Metservice meteorologist Claire Flynn said a severe weather watch remained in place for Canterbury with gale force winds still possible, particularly on Banks Peninsula.
While severe weather warnings were in place for parts of Southland yesterday, the wild conditions largely stayed away.
In Invercargill, steady rain fell. Gale warnings were in place for Foveaux Strait. – Fairfax NZ