recent heavy rain and strong winds<\/a> caused power outages.<\/p>\nThe Horowhenua District Council said there was ongoing pressure on water and wastewater systems due to earlier power outages.<\/p>\n
People in Foxton, Foxton Beach and Tokomaru have been asked to take shorter showers, avoid watering lawns, delay non-essential water use such as washing cars and outdoor cleaning.<\/p>\n
“Power loss to several water and wastewater treatment plants has meant council has had to rely on emergency back-up generators to maintain essential services. In some locations, this has placed additional strain on operations,” the council said.<\/p>\n
“The key concern at present is the combination of the busy New Year period and high visitor numbers. Foxton and Foxton Beach are experiencing low reservoir levels as demand increases.”<\/p>\n
The council was able to truck additional water into the network as a precaution to protect supply and ensure contingency for firefighting if required.<\/p>\n
![\"Fences](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/4JVLAGC_20251230_113811_jpg.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
\nFences and trees are down on Tuesday in the Summerhill area of Palmerston North after a windy night.
\nPhoto: RNZ \/ Jimmy Ellingham\n<\/p>\n
“However, this is a costly measure, and council is asking residents and visitors to help by using water wisely,” it said.<\/p>\n
People were also asked to “follow the golden rule – if it’s yellow let it mellow, if it’s brown flush it down”.<\/p>\n
Thunderstorms still possible<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, a severe thunderstorm watch has been issued for much of the inland North Island Wednesday, from Northland through to Wellington.<\/p>\n
MetService has issued an orange heavy rain warning for the ranges in the Tasman district, west of Motueka through until early tomorrow morning.<\/p>\n
Heavy rain watches are also in place for the Buller area and the Richmond and Bryant ranges, including the Rai Valley.<\/p>\n
MetService said conditions could become severe this afternoon, with downpours of up to 40mm per hour.<\/p>\n
They were expected to affect Northland, Auckland, Waikato, through Waitomo and Taranaki, down to Manawatu and Kapiti-Horowhenua to Wellington.<\/p>\n
The forecaster said driving conditions will be hazardous, and the rainfall could lead to slips and sudden flooding.<\/p>\n
The watch was expected to be lifted at 10pm Wednesday night.<\/p>\n
Power outages repair work underway<\/p>\n
Power has now been partially restored in Shannon and Tokomaru townships, and work has been continuing across surrounding areas.<\/p>\n
“Because a number of individual line and pole replacements are still required, some households may continue to be without power for a period while repairs are completed,” the council said.<\/p>\n
More than 400 households in the North Island were still out of power due to the recent weather events, according to electricity distributor Powerco.<\/p>\n
It said Manawat\u016b and Thames-Coromandel are still the most affected regions and it’s unsure when power can be restored.<\/p>\n
There were 202 households without power in Manawat\u016b, and 198 in Thames-Coromandel through to South Waikato, the company said.<\/p>\n
![\"Crews](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/4JVJHWA_607001250_1463391845789740_6991209849263545813_n_jpg.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
\nCrews from Electra respond to weather-related power outage damages in Tokomaru on Monday.
\nPhoto: Supplied \/ Facebook\n<\/p>\n
Other affected areas include Wairarapa, Whanganui, Bay of Plenty and Taranaki.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson from Powerco said field crews were out this morning and throughout the day conducting repairs, including clearing trees from lines and reconnecting downed lines.<\/p>\n
“Due to the complexity of the repair work, Powerco is unable to give reconnection times to customers – we acknowledge this is frustrating especially for customers who have been without power since Monday,” the company said.<\/p>\n
Sign up for Ng\u0101 Pitopito K\u014drero<\/a>, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Campers at Totaranui Abel Tasman National Park had a near miss when a tree came down on some…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":209274,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[48,47,42,43,49,46,44,45,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-209273","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-audio","9":"tag-current-affairs","10":"tag-headlines","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-podcasts","13":"tag-public-radio","14":"tag-radio-new-zealand","15":"tag-rnz","16":"tag-top-news","17":"tag-top-stories","18":"tag-topnews","19":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209273\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Campers](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/4JVLK20_20251230_081047_jpg.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n