Cyclone Vaianu is triggering flooding and strong, damaging winds in parts of New Zealand’s North Island, as the potentially “life-threatening” cyclone makes landfall.
New Zealand’s weather bureau MetService says the centre of the cyclone is now over the Maketu Peninsula and it will continue to move across the North Island.
Strong winds are being felt across the region, with gusts over 130 kilometres per hour recorded in some areas, the bureau added.
Emergency Management Minister Mark Mitchell said the cyclone had moved “more towards the fringes” of the North Island, sparing Auckland — the country’s most populous city — from the worst conditions.
“We haven’t quite seen the intensity that we had prepared for or that we thought we were going to get hit with. So that is good news,” Mr Mitchell said.
“In terms of what we’re going to expect over the next 12 hours, we are going to see a bit more of intensification, as the cyclone starts to come down and get closer.”
The combination of the afternoon’s high tide and large swells from the storm could trigger coastal inundation, he warned.
The cyclone has forced hundreds of residents to evacuate and knocked out electricity to some 5,000 homes so far, with power restored to roughly 2,000, Mr Mitchell said.
Stace Tahere from Bay of Plenty Emergency Management told Radio New Zealand there had been heavy wind, rain and large swells along with power outages in the area, where evacuation orders were in place.
Mr Tahere said while the cyclone had already brought dangerous conditions, the worst was yet to come.
Whakatāne resident Riki Burnett inspects his fence after it was damaged by a tree. (Radio New Zealand: Robin Martin)
Drivers were also being urged to stay off flooded roads in towns around Coromandel after reports three vehicles had tried to get through floodwaters.
In the Waikato region, south of Auckland, Radio New Zealand reported there had been 800 power outages and multiple homes had been evacuated because of flooding.
Fallen trees closed roads in some areas.
Waikato Civil Defence Group Controller Julian Snowball told local media the cyclone had the potential to cause more power outages and road closures, potentially cutting off communities.
A Whitianga resident sandbags his house in preparation for Cyclone Vaianu. (Radio New Zealand: Marika Khabazi)
“Mandatory evacuations have been coordinated across multiple homes, with the residents being looked after by friends and families. Civil Defence Centres are available across the region, to receive displaced people, if required,” Mr Snowball told RNZ.
On Saturday, the country’s MetService urged residents living in coastal areas to evacuate.
“The combination of damaging winds, heavy rain and coastal inundation makes this a multi-hazard, potentially life-threatening event,” the service said.
This screenshot of MetService’s rain radar shows Cyclone Vaianu approaching the coast. (Supplied: MetService)
Local authorities have imposed a state of emergency in the most populous regions of the North Island including Tauranga, where two landslides killed eight people in February.
Residents in Auckland were also issued a flood warning.
The weather forecaster warned that Auckland, a city of 1.7 million people, could expect up to 110 millimetres of rain from late Saturday to Sunday afternoon, with “heavy swells and coastal inundation likely”.
“Streams and rivers may rise rapidly,” it added.
Roads in Whitianga, on New Zealand’s north coast, are beginning to flood. (Radio New Zealand: Marika Khabazi)
The city’s emergency operations centre controller Gareth Wallis warned this was “not the time for sightseeing or risk-taking”.
“Closures are in place to protect lives and must be respected,” he said.
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Alison Stern, director of Beach Point Apartments at Ohope Beach, is among hundreds of residents in Whakatane on the north-east coast to leave after an evacuation order issued by her local council.
“There are steep cliffs behind us and we are close to the water,” she told AFP by telephone on Saturday, as the holiday town waited for the storm front to make landfall.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said on Friday the cyclone had the potential to be damaging and urged those in its path to prepare for impact.
“Make sure drains are free, check in on the neighbours, and be prepared for possible power cuts,” Mr Luxon said on X.
Vaianu has conjured up the painful memory of 2023’s Cyclone Gabrielle, which killed 11 and displaced thousands in one of New Zealand’s biggest natural disasters this century.
Radio New Zealand, Reuters, AFP