MetService is urging people to “take preparation seriously” ahead of some “pretty nasty and severe weather” predicted to hit this weekend with Tropical Cyclone Vaianu.
Forecasters have been keeping a close eye on the potential path of the subtropical low forming off the coast of Fiji, and warned it could potentially have life-threateneing impacts when it likely hits the country on Sunday.
Meteorologist John Law told Breakfast that TC Vaianu was currently up in the tropics sitting as a category two tropical cyclone just south of Fiji.
Yesterday, the cyclone caused some disruptions and diversions on flights near Fiji, with passengers aboard a Fiji Airways flight from Sydney to Nadi describing scenes on the plane as "pretty dramatic".
“It’s one of those things we’re going to be keeping a really close eye on as we head through the weekend [and] it starts to move closer to us bringing the risk of some pretty severe and nasty weather," he said.
Yesterday the forecaster issued a preliminary severe weather watch for the entire North Island with a strong wind watch in place from 1am to 11pm on Sunday.
“This is just the first of potentially many watches and warnings as we move into the weekend. It’s covering a broad area, but there is the risk of wind and also heavy rainfall as we go into the weekend.
"And the strong winds will also help drive some pretty rough coastal conditions,” he said.
He said "the good news is we have several days before we start to see the impacts, so we’ve got time to take a breath and take our preparation seriously”.
He urged people to keep up to date with the situation.
Car falls into landslide chasm in Rotorua
Bay of Plenty about and east of Whakatāne remained under a heavy rain watch until midday today, while the entire North Island was issued a strong wind watch from 1am to 11pm on Sunday.
Overnight, Fire and Emergency New Zealand told 1News that part of Ngapouri Rd near Rotorua washed away in a landslide, reportedly creating a deep chasm on farmland.
The FENZ shift manager said a car had fallen into the chasm shortly after 10pm.
They said fire crews from Rotorua and a specialist swift water rescue team were called to the scene and one person was rescued.
FENZ said it had a number of weather related callouts, mostly related to flooding around Rotorua earlier in evening.
A slip has blocked State Highway 2 in the Waioeka Gorge, south of Ōpōtiki.
New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi said contractors were on site, but urged motorists to take alternate routes.
“There are also other areas of the Rotorua and Eastern Bay of Plenty area where there is surface flooding noticeable,” the spokesperson said.
“Please take extra care if you absolutely need to travel.”
Bay of Plenty, Northland on high alert
Western Bay of Plenty and Northland were both hit hard during previous weather events this year, and locals were being urged to prepare.
Nassah Rolleston-Steed from Bay of Plenty Civil Defence said the region has experienced "a few weather events" this year, and were still in recovery mode.
"Top of mind is the safety and wellbeing of our communities," he said.
Rolleston-Steed said one of the key concerns was already-saturated soils from these previous events.
“With heavy rain, we’re expecting the potential for the exacerbation of those existing slips in the region, potential for more, downed trees, plus we’ve got a lot of erosion already in coastal areas. So with that strong storm surge we could expect inundation in low-lying coastal areas.
"So there’s the expectation we could have evacuations, power outages across the region."
He said daily meetings were being held with local authorities and emergency management groups to monitor the situation and “make a call closer to the weekend” as to any activation of any sites.
He said there were protocols in place to trigger any evacuation of areas as needed, but said it was too soon to tell if those would be needed.
Far North Mayor Moko Tepania echoed these ideas, telling Breakfast his region "was only a week out today from the lifting of that severe weather event".
"We’re still in recovery mode from both of those storms actually... waiting to see when this cyclone is going to hit us again, so an anxious wait but our people are resilient and reight now the messaging is clear around getting ready and getting prepared for the worst."
He said the whānau on the ground "are really worried", but he reassured that the council was prepared to assist should the weather be as severe as predicted.
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