Thousands of residents across the upper North Island are being urged to prepare for a night without electricity as crews work to repair widespread damage caused by powerful winds overnight.
Lines company Powerco confirmed at the peak of the outages, there were around 13,456 customers without power.
By Sunday afternoon, that number had dropped to around 8651.
The worst-hit areas were the Coromandel Peninsula and western Bay of Plenty, where crews have been working since early morning to assess damage and begin repairs.
Powerco head of network operations Mark Dunn said those currently without electricity should prepare to remain without power overnight.
"We know it's hard to be without power and we will do everything we can to get as many customers restored as quickly as possible, but this storm has caused damage in a lot of different locations. For that reason, it’s important that, if you are affected by an outage because of storm damage, you prepare to be without power overnight."
While there had been extra crews joining the restoration today, multiple poles and lines were down in a "number of locations", he said.
"We will be doing all we can with the technology we have in place to minimise the outage areas, however, we will need time to make repairs to physical damage such as restringing long sections of broken lines.
"Thank you for your patience and understanding. Keep safe out there."
The largest outage on the Coromandel Peninsula involved the area around Whangamatā, where more than 4800 customers had been without power since early Sunday.
Major damage included downed lines and broken poles on Tairua Rd, and a 600m span of line down in rugged terrain between Whangamatā and Whiritoa.
Outages also impacted Katikati, Aongatete, and Wairoa Rd in the western Bay of Plenty, where fallen trees and storm damage cut supply to more than 2700 customers.
Meanwhile, Fire and Emergency NZ shift manager Josh Pennefather said since 6am this morning, it had received 37 weather-related callouts across the Bay of Plenty.
"All were related to the high winds the region is experiencing," he said.
Reasons for callouts included fallen trees, arcing power lines, roofs lifting, issues with loose roof tiling, a trampoline that was blown away, and a garden shed that lifted in the wind.
MetService meteorologist Devlin Lynden told 1News the upper North Island experienced gusts of up to 120km/h "from the west right through to the east".
"Particularly the Coromandel, as it's quite exposed, as well as the western Bay of Plenty will have seen gusts in the same kind of range."
The Golden Valley weather station near Waihi recorded a gust of 150km/h in the early hours of this morning, Lynden said, adding that while the station was "very exposed" it was indicative of the potential for strong gusts across the region.
A strong wind watch was in place for the Coromandel and Bay of Plenty west of Edgecumbe until midnight on Saturday.
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