Strong winds are also expected to build to severe gale force in exposed parts of the North Island.<\/p>\n
Winds are forecast to initially blow from the east to southeast before swinging southwesterly as the cyclone moves south.<\/p>\n
\u2018Act now\u2019 – Nema<\/p>\n
The National Emergency Management Agency (Nema) is warning Kiwis to \u201cact now\u201d as Tropical Cyclone Vaianu heads for New Zealand.<\/p>\n
MetService modelling shows Vaianu bringing heavy rain and extremely strong winds to parts of the country on Friday and Saturday, with red severe weather warnings possible.<\/p>\n
Nema director of civil defence emergency management John Price said people should start preparing now before the storm arrives, as \u201clater could be too late\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you can, make sure drains around your property are clear of waste and debris, and bring inside or tie down anything that strong winds could break or pick up,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cTrust your danger sense and don\u2019t wait for official warnings. Do not enter floodwaters as they are dangerous and can kill you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Price said landslides were an \u201calmost certainty\u201d in some areas, with the ground already saturated after recent heavy rain.<\/p>\n
\u201cWatch for warning signs like small slips or rockfalls, water flowing out of a slope, trees or fences that start to tilt, or doors and window frames that begin to stick.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlso take care around trees, which may become unstable and fall.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the storm would be especially tough for communities still recovering from recent severe weather and urged people to support one another and reach out for help if needed.<\/p>\n
Weather alerts issued<\/p>\n
Authorities are bracing for a potentially \u201csignificant and damaging\u201d storm ahead of the Category 3 cyclone hitting New Zealand.<\/p>\n
MetService says the cyclone is expected to first move across the top of the country this weekend, with the entire North Island now under a strong wind watch for 22 hours from 1am to 11pm on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Chris Penk, Acting Minister for Emergency Management and Recovery, told the Herald there\u2019s potential for Cyclone Vaianu to be \u201csignificant and damaging\u201d.<\/p>\n
Fresh out of an emergency ministerial briefing this morning, he said the Government is not taking the storm lightly and neither should Kiwis.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s certainly potential for Vaianu to be significant and damaging.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s unwelcome news for the areas recently affected by bad weather … just recently, at the start of the year and of course Cyclone Gabrielle and other floods.\u201d<\/p>\n
The entire North Island is under a strong wind watch from 1am to 11pm on Sunday as Cyclone Vaianu makes its way down from the tropics. Image \/ MetService<\/p>\n
All eyes are on Northland and the upper North Island as the cyclone is expected to reach the top of the country by Saturday.<\/p>\n
Speaking to the media this afternoon, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon acknowledged the prospect of Cyclone Vaianu hitting the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019ll likely have a big impact on the North Island, particularly on Sunday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re encouraging people to stock up, get supplies and tie things down.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said emergency agencies are on full notice and are ready for it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s important we use the time we\u2019ve got to make sure people are prepared at homes and households.\u201d<\/p>\n
Penk told the Herald the potential scale of the storm is \u201cbeyond the recent experience coastal and rural communities have recently had\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe advise people take reasonable steps and precaution, as has the Government. We aren\u2019t taking this lightly.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf it isn\u2019t as bad as we think that\u2019s obviously good … but it\u2019s best to anticipate the worst in this situation.\u201d<\/p>\n
MetService has reported on its website that if the cyclone does move across the North Island as expected, \u201cit will bring damaging, potentially life-threatening winds\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, uncertainty remains in the cyclone\u2019s exact track, so the locations of the most severe winds are not yet certain.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs confidence in the track increases, parts of this [wind] watch will be upgraded to orange or possibly red warnings.<\/p>\n
\u201cVaianu will also bring heavy rain, with heavy rain watches and\/or warnings likely to be issued on Thursday for some areas. High chance of upgrading to a warning.\u201d<\/p>\n
When asked if the use of \u201clife-threatening winds\u201d is accurate, Penk said he \u201cwouldn\u2019t second-guess the work of meteorologists\u201d.<\/p>\n
Earth Science New Zealand (ESNZ, formerly Niwa) forecaster Chester Lampkin told the Herald that \u201cheavy rain is highly likely\u201d.<\/p>\n
Rainfall totals exceeding 100mm are expected for many upper North Island locations, with some areas possibly topping 200mm, mainly about foothills and ranges.<\/p>\n
The latest track of Cyclone Vaianu has been projected by the Joint Typhoon Warning Centre.<\/p>\n
\u201cStrong to gale winds are also likely, especially along the coastal areas and in the ranges\u201d, Lampkin said, with isolated severe gales gusting up to 120km\/h.<\/p>\n
Penk said although Northland was tracked to be the first region in the storm\u2019s firing line, there was potential for it to reach anywhere in New Zealand, including the South Island.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s subject to other weather systems while it makes its way down, so we\u2019ll know closer to Sunday about areas in the south,\u201d the acting minister said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt doesn\u2019t look like it will be a particularly long-lived storm, but it certainly seems to me the event will have potential severe impacts.\u201d<\/p>\n
MetService reported the cyclone was forecast to move southeast across the North Island towards East Cape by midnight on Sunday, with the potential for severe gales in the Tararua and Manawat\u016b districts.<\/p>\n
Giant swells of up to 8m have been forecast from 1am on Sunday, mainly in the east of the Far North, making their way down the east of the country and easing off around Gisborne by Monday afternoon.<\/p>\n
Civil Defence measures installed<\/p>\n
Penk said Civil Defence, local help centres and Nema had \u201cprepared well\u201d and the Defence Force had begun proactive planning.<\/p>\n
ESNZ would urge caution in comparing this to previous cyclones that have impacted New Zealand, \u201cas this storm will have unique impacts\u201d.<\/p>\n
The Far North District Council has set up recovery hubs to support locals affected by recent severe weather, as more rain looms for the area.<\/p>\n
Bay of Plenty MP Tom Rutherford said Nema and civil defence emergency management groups were monitoring the situation.<\/p>\n
In Whang\u0101rei, Mayor Ken Couper said the region is \u201changing on by a thread\u201d because it was already recovering from two storms and recent rain.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got to be saying to ourselves that the northeast region is hanging by a thread, isn\u2019t it?\u201d Couper said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re starting to feel the strain and are concerned about what\u2019s coming.\u201d<\/p>\n
Category 3 storm brings 185km\/h winds, 8m waves<\/p>\n
As Vaianu edges closer, a Fiji Meteorological Service (FMS) spokesman in Nadi told the Herald the Category 3 storm has sustained winds of 130km\/h at its core and 185km\/h gusts, with waves towering more than 8m in some areas.<\/p>\n
The last available information showed waves in excess of 8m in the centre and rainfall at more than 50mm \u2013 and in some places 100mm \u2013 in a 24-hour period, the spokesman said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s wreaked quite a lot of havoc … some of our weather systems are also not working properly because we\u2019ve had power outages, so they need to restart.\u201d<\/p>\n
The FMS spokesman believed there\u2019s \u201cbarely a possibility\u201d of the storm moving to Category 4.<\/p>\n
Flash-flood warnings remain in place for mainland Viti Levu and for all low-lying and flood-prone areas.<\/p>\n
All schools across Fiji have closed under a Government-led directive, and multiple flights to and from the island nation have been cancelled.<\/p>\n
The Fiji Meteorological Service said Vaianu had moved southeast at about 20km\/h.<\/p>\n
The handover to MetService will be \u201clater this evening\u201d, the spokesman said, when Cyclone Vaianu is expected to reach New Zealand waters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Strong winds are also expected to build to severe gale force in exposed parts of the North Island.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":369258,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[41242,5263,806,28246,124,33959,36124,29815,2082,54171,99485,6559,2514,70362,111,43,139,529,69,17711,2171,19328,673,10809,61,5911,19030,8238,192592,25535,18980,102],"class_list":{"0":"post-369257","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-alert","9":"tag-all","10":"tag-as","11":"tag-begin","12":"tag-could","13":"tag-cyclone","14":"tag-damaging","15":"tag-downpours","16":"tag-for","17":"tag-forecasters","18":"tag-galeforce","19":"tag-heavy","20":"tag-island","21":"tag-lash","22":"tag-new-zealand","23":"tag-news","24":"tag-newzealand","25":"tag-north","26":"tag-nz","27":"tag-parts","28":"tag-plans","29":"tag-reach","30":"tag-storm","31":"tag-sunday","32":"tag-to","33":"tag-tonight","34":"tag-tropical","35":"tag-under","36":"tag-vaianu","37":"tag-waters","38":"tag-winds","39":"tag-with"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369257","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=369257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369257\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/369258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=369257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=369257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=369257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}