{"id":95639,"date":"2025-10-23T03:40:04","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T03:40:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/95639\/"},"modified":"2025-10-23T03:40:04","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T03:40:04","slug":"wild-winds-leave-tens-of-thousands-without-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/95639\/","title":{"rendered":"Wild winds leave tens of thousands without power"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1761138309_211_grey-placeholder.png\" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 gUePlo hide-when-no-script\" aria-label=\"image unavailable\"\/><img decoding=\"async\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/34703450-afb7-11f0-b2a1-6f537f66f9aa.jpg.webp.webp\" loading=\"eager\" alt=\"Getty Images A man wearing a black coat and jeans, carrying a coffee cup, struggling to cross a road during a strong wind\" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 hLdNfA\"\/>Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>Residents in New Zealand are have been urged to stay indoors as strong winds lash the country<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Strong winds of up to 155km\/h (96mph) in New Zealand has left around 90,000 homes without power and forced authorities to cancel more than 100 flights, report local media.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">The winds are affecting the whole of the South Island and the southern parts of the North Island, according to the country&#8217;s meteorological service.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">New Zealand authorities have issued rare red wind warnings &#8211; the highest alert level &#8211; in central regions including Canterbury and Wellington. They have also warned of heavy rain in the South Island.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">People have been urged to stay indoors and avoid travel, and to prepare for further power and communication outages.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">The power cut appears to be affecting homes mostly in the South Island, though authorities say that the electricity supply was being restored progressively.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Local media have reported that in some places roofs have been ripped off houses, while trees and electricity poles have been knocked down by the winds.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">In Wellington, a man was killed after being struck by a tree branch at a popular trail walking spot on Tuesday. <\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Also in the capital, a woman was blown onto oncoming traffic on a road by a strong gust of wind, in a moment that was captured in a viral dashcam video. She appeared to survive.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Flights in and out of the city have been cancelled because of the winds, while some roads and libraries are also closed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Meanwhile Canterbury officials have declared a state of emergency, to support disaster response efforts.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1761138309_211_grey-placeholder.png\" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 gUePlo hide-when-no-script\" aria-label=\"image unavailable\"\/><img decoding=\"async\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/d1d00e20-afb5-11f0-a74b-35e8b9054e47.png.webp.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"MetService A map of New Zealand, with most of its South Island coloured orange and red and covered with multiple wind and rain symbols\" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 hLdNfA\"\/>MetService<\/p>\n<p>Much of New Zealand is under severe weather warnings<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">The wild winds on Thursday come as tens and thousands of teachers, doctors and other public workers take part in what has been termed a &#8220;mega strike&#8221;, calling for better pay and working conditions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">But the extreme weather has forced them to change some of their plans, with some outdoor rallies moved indoors or cancelled.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Similar gusts are also sweeping Australia, bringing a heatwave to the country&#8217;s outback. Authorities have issued fire bans for fear of bushfires.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Images Residents in New Zealand are have been urged to stay indoors as strong winds lash the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":95640,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-95639","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95639","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=95639"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95639\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}