{"id":378889,"date":"2026-04-14T11:45:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T11:45:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/378889\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T11:45:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T11:45:10","slug":"cyclone-vaianu-why-whakatane-district-council-moved-early-to-evacuate-residents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/378889\/","title":{"rendered":"Cyclone Vaianu: Why Whakat\u0101ne District Council moved early to evacuate residents"},"content":{"rendered":"

Around 270 properties in \u014chope and Thornton were cleared<\/a> as officials warned of coastal inundation, storm surges and landslides during the peak of the event on Sunday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Whakat\u0101ne District Council controller Nicholas Woodley said the decision to issue mandatory evacuation orders proved well-founded.<\/p>\n

He said the combination of extreme winds up to 150km\/h, large seas and the high tide on Sunday afternoon created the coastal inundation risk across exposed low-lying areas.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe most significant impacts were felt in coastal areas of \u014chope, Matat\u0101, Thornton and surrounding low-lying communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Woodley said early action meant residents could move safely before conditions peaked.<\/p>\n

\u201cResidents were cleared to return home from 6pm Sunday following visual assessments by Emergency Operations Centre staff supported by the New Zealand Defence Force.\u201d<\/p>\n

Four Square \u014chope Beach closed its doors at 10am Sunday after residents were asked to evacuate.<\/p>\n

Store manager Tremaine Pompey remained on site to keep the generators running after the store lost power around midday, leaving it without electricity for seven hours.<\/p>\n

Pompey said once the warning from Civil Defence<\/a> and the council came through, there was a \u201cwhole rush\u201d of people through the shop\u2019s doors.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey [customers] were stocking up with water and what-not, cans, just the essential items, but during the storm, it wasn\u2019t too crazy, to be honest.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TheThe main street of Whakat\u0101ne as Cyclone Vaianu hits. Photo \/ Mike Scott<\/p>\n

He said \u014chope \u201cdefinitely got hit\u201d by wind and rain, with a few tree branches breaking off here and there.<\/p>\n

\u201cRain was on and off, just little moments, little glimpses of torrential rain. It wasn\u2019t non-stop, but the wind was howling; it was, definitely, the biggest factor in our storm.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked if he thought an evacuation was needed, Pompey said: \u201cIn hindsight, probably not.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut when you\u2019re looking ahead of time, then yeah, I think it\u2019s probably necessary to put it out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several businesses contacted by NZME in West End and \u014chope on Monday said most of the warnings were \u201cwell organised\u201d and the council had done extensive planning.<\/p>\n

One West End resident, who left the area on Saturday and returned late on Sunday night and did not want to be named, said she was \u201cmore than happy\u201d to follow the rules and evacuate.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt could have been way worse, but it\u2019s one of those things you just have to kind of do.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought we had a pretty positive experience, it was well organised, it was all as planned and as predicted from the MetService warnings and from the council.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AA group of locals and surfers clean up the shorefront of \u014chope. Photo \/ Mike Scott <\/p>\n

MetService meteorologist Devlin Lynden said the system generated significant rain and strong winds across much of the North Island, including the Bay of Plenty.<\/p>\n

An inland station east of Whakat\u0101ne reached 40mm of rain and Lynden said damaging wind gusts had been a major feature of the cyclone.<\/p>\n

Whakat\u0101ne recorded a gust of 94km\/h before its station stopped reporting at midday on Sunday, possibly due to wind damage or a power outage.<\/p>\n

Acting Whakat\u0101ne District Mayor Julie Jukes said Cyclone Vaianu \u201chit our district hard\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe combination of extreme winds, large waves and high tide on Sunday afternoon created dangerous conditions across our coastal communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said council teams had been working \u201caround the clock\u201d and were now focusing on assessing the damage<\/a> to get the district back on its feet.<\/p>\n

\u201cRecovery from an event like this takes time and our immediate priority is restoring essential services \u2013 power, water and roads \u2013 and ensuring our communities are safe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jukes said she wanted to acknowledge how seriously the community took the warnings.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople acted early, looked out for their neighbours, and that made a real difference.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have been through difficult times before and we have always come through them together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kaitlyn Morrell<\/a> is a journalist for the Bay of Plenty Times and the Rotorua Daily Post. She has lived in the region for several years and studied journalism at Massey University.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Around 270 properties in \u014chope and Thornton were cleared as officials warned of coastal inundation, storm surges and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":378890,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5205,33959,7557,2245,36662,32033,111,43,139,69,530,61,192592,2240,4276],"class_list":{"0":"post-378889","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-council","9":"tag-cyclone","10":"tag-district","11":"tag-early","12":"tag-evacuate","13":"tag-moved","14":"tag-new-zealand","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-newzealand","17":"tag-nz","18":"tag-residents","19":"tag-to","20":"tag-vaianu","21":"tag-whakatne","22":"tag-why"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378889","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=378889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378889\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}