{"id":599481,"date":"2026-04-11T06:17:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T06:17:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/599481\/"},"modified":"2026-04-11T06:17:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T06:17:11","slug":"thousands-across-new-zealand-preparing-to-evacuate-as-cyclone-vaianu-closes-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/599481\/","title":{"rendered":"Thousands across New Zealand preparing to evacuate as Cyclone Vaianu closes in"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Thousands of people across <a href=\"https:\/\/www.9news.com.au\/new-zealand\" target=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"New Zealand\">New Zealand<\/a> are being prepared to evacuate as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.9news.com.au\/cyclone\" target=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"Cyclone\">Cyclone<\/a> Vaianu moves closer to the nation, bringing severe <a href=\"https:\/\/www.9news.com.au\/weather-news\" target=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"weather\">weather<\/a> conditions.<\/p>\n<p>The system is set to reach New Zealand by Saturday night, with a state of emergency being declared \ufefffor Northland, Whakat\u0101ne and Hawke&#8217;s Bay as they prepare for what is being called a &#8220;major wind event&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Multiple <a href=\"https:\/\/www.9news.com.au\/emergencies\" target=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"emergency\">emergency<\/a> alerts have been sent out today across New Zealand, including in Auckland, urging residents \ufeffto brace for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.9news.com.au\/rain\" target=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"heavy rain\">heavy rain<\/a> and strong <a href=\"https:\/\/www.9news.com.au\/storms\" target=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"wind warnings\">wind warnings<\/a>.<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/e08a2975-fba5-4606-8a21-5b33e4bdf4d7.png\"   alt=\"An alert was sent to people in Auckland.\"\/>An alert was sent to people in Auckland. (Nine)<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Prepare now. Have a plan to shelter at home, deal with potential power outages, or evacuate if necessary,&#8221; the alert said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Follow forecasts and do not wait for official warnings.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Wind damage, flooding and landslides can occur at any time.&#8221;\ufeff<\/p>\n<p>Stuff\ufeff has reported that the entire North Island is under both severe weather watches and warnings, with strong wind warnings for Great Barrier Island and the Coromandel Peninsula, where gusts of up to 130km\/h are expected.<\/p>\n<p>The nation&#8217;s South Island is reportedly bracing for heavy rain across \ufeffeastern Marlborough, especially between Blenheim and Kaik\u014dura and near the Richmond Range.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/ff300a06-4fac-497a-9510-bea1c876185f.jpeg\"   alt=\"Cyclone Vaianu is set to reach New Zealand tonight.\"\/>Cyclone Vaianu is set to reach New Zealand tonight. (Supplied)<\/p>\n<p>New Zealand Civil Defence Minister Mark Mitchell told Stuff that the nation is prepared for Cyclone Vaianu.<\/p>\n<p>\ufeff&#8221;We&#8217;ve seen it come through Fiji and the devastation it&#8217;s caused there,&#8221; he told Stuff.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We know it&#8217;s coming, it&#8217;s on its way to us. We&#8217;ve learned the lessons from Cyclone Gabrielle, and the whole emergency management system is activated.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We&#8217;re as ready as we can to have the strongest response that we can deliver. Which, of course, helps with a strong recovery as well.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>NEVER MISS A STORY: Get your breaking news and exclusive stories first by following us across all platforms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thousands of people across New Zealand are being prepared to evacuate as Cyclone Vaianu moves closer to the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":599482,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-599481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=599481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599481\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/599482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=599481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=599481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=599481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}