{"id":285691,"date":"2026-02-15T19:48:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T19:48:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/285691\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T19:48:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T19:48:08","slug":"live-weather-evacuations-power-cuts-roads-closed-as-severe-gales-rain-batter-lower-north-island","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/285691\/","title":{"rendered":"Live weather: Evacuations, power cuts, roads closed as severe gales, rain batter lower North Island"},"content":{"rendered":"

Follow the latest in RNZ’s live blog above<\/p>\n

Air NZ has cancelled flights in and out of several major centres, including the capital, citing strong winds.<\/p>\n

“Safety is paramount and we are continuing to closely monitor conditions, with winds expected to reduce later this morning when we expect to resume services,” chief operating officer Alex Marren said.<\/p>\n

The decision followed evacuations in Manawat\u016b and on the coast of the Tararua District due to rising river levels.<\/p>\n

The entire Manawat\u016b-Whanganui region is in a state of emergency with heavy rain, flooding as severe weather lashes the lower North Island<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Thousands of properties have had power cut off.<\/p>\n

Fire and Emergency have had 185 call outs across the lower North Island – with roofs lifting, power lines down, and trees and windows being blown in.<\/p>\n

Five districts – Manawat\u016b, Rangit\u012bkei, Tararua, Waip\u0101 and \u014ctorohanga District – are in states of emergency.<\/p>\n

On Sunday afternoon, all remaining flights in and out of Wellington for the day were cancelled, as were Cook Strait ferry crossings.<\/p>\n

Follow RNZ’s live coverage above for the most up-to-date information.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Follow the latest in RNZ’s live blog above Air NZ has cancelled flights in and out of several…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":285692,"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-285691","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\/285691","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=285691"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285691\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/285692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}