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Wild weather spreads

Author
AAP,
Publish Date
Sun, 22 Jan 2017, 5:28PM
A tree blocking a road in Panmure, Auckland (Facebook)
A tree blocking a road in Panmure, Auckland (Facebook)

Wild weather spreads

Author
AAP,
Publish Date
Sun, 22 Jan 2017, 5:28PM

Thousands of Aucklanders are still without power, Wellington is getting blasted by strong winds and rivers are high in Tasman district in the South Island.

The low predicted to bring foul weather less than a week after a "weather bomb" is delivering on Sunday.

"On the Terrace Wellington severe wind lifted me up when I was walking and flung me over a parked car's bonnet," a woman called Rosie told Fairfax.

A gust of 140km/h was recorded at Mt Kaukau at 7am and strong winds continued in Wellington on Sunday afternoon. A few flights were cancelled at Wellington Airport.

Police have closed Vivian St in Wellington between Taranaki St and Cambridge Terrace because a piece of glass has fallen from a building, landing on a parked car. Another piece is loose and may fall.

There are no reports of any injuries.

The Fire Service says it's busy in Wellington, while social media is full of pictures of downed trees in Auckland.

Vector, the power supplier to Auckland, says there are now 9,500 customers affected by outages, down from 15,000 with several large feeders close to restoration.

But as soon as it fixes lines others come down.

"As an example of the strength of the elements, we've just been notified of a bouncy castle that's become tangled in our lines out in Kumeu," the company says.

A man suffered serious injuries at Drury, south of Auckland, on Saturday night when a tree came down on the Southern Motorway, hitting his car.

At the top of the South Island, Nelson Tasman Civil Defence reports strong winds and heavy rain overnight brought rivers in the Takaka Valley to high levels.

During a five hour period, 153mm of rain fell in the Waingaro Valley, with 41.3mm falling in one hour.

This resulted in the Waingaro River, and the Anatoki River, reaching 10-year flood levels. These flows are the third-highest since flow monitoring began in 1979.

The Upper Takaka river peaked at flows experienced only eight times before in the past 50 years.

Road closure warnings were issued for the state highway at Upper Takaka, and either side of Takaka Township.

Flooding in the Aorere valley was more moderate, although road closure signs were placed at Ferntown on the road to Pakawau.

Wind gusts reached 105km/h in Richmond, short of the 136km/h reached in 2015. The high winds resulted in a number of trees falling.

Rivers throughout the Tasman and Nelson region are dropping but care is still needed.

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