Preparedness: One year on from South Island's wild windstorm

A year on from the severe windstorm that battered parts of South Island, farmers say they are much better prepared for the next major weather event.

Last October, the storm caused tens of millions of dollars of damage and cut power to around 50,000 customers for days.

In just a few hours, powerful wind gusts reaching speeds of up to 164km/h tore through parts of Southland and Otago.

Local states of emergency were declared as roofs were ripped off buildings and sheds, trees were brought down and power and cellphone coverage were disrupted.

The weather event triggered the biggest clean-up operation in local electricity network company PowerNet's history.

Chief executive Paul Blue said about 98% of the outages were caused by trees, and replacing hundreds of power poles and kilometres of lines cost around $8m.

“It was a storm that affected farming in a way that we haven't seen before, particularly during peak milking,” Blue told 1News.

Many of his staff, along with other electricians, were at an industry competition in Christchurch when the storm struck, prompting an urgent call for workers across the country to come help.

“It's amazing when we have an event like that, just how everyone comes together,” he said.

Invercargill also suffered damage, particularly the city’s Queen’s Park.

The award-winning park was forced to close — believed to be for the first time in its 170-year history — as hundreds of trees were blown down.

Mayor Tom Campbell told 1News: "The main issue was just the sheer number of trees we lost. A thousand trees. I mean, behind me [on one of the city’s green belt plots] was a forest. And it's all gone.”

Campbell said the council was now looking new locations to restore lost trees.

“The first thing is to replant, of course… we'd plant two trees for everyone that came out. that will increase the tree canopy for the city," he explained.

"But you can't replace a 100-year-old tree in a year. So, at the moment, it looks a bit bare."

Fallen trees also posed a major safety concern, with many others since cut down as a precaution.

“One of these trees, which were 150-year-old macrocarpa, planted right at the beginning of the city… fell across the road. and by the sheer grace of God, fell between two cars… and nobody was injured,” Campbell said.

With no power in many rural communities, some milk had to be dumped as many dairy farmers scrambled for generators, with many sharing with their neighbours.

Rural Support Trust Southland spokesperson Dean Rabbiage described it as an “interesting time".

“A lot of trees [were] down, wool shed roof missing, no power, we're fortunate we had communications through Starlink… there's been a mess to tidy up and few fences wrecked and stock everywhere," he said.

While farms were largely back to normal operations a year on, some clean-up work remained.

Rabbiage said the adversity had helped add resilience to the sector.

“I know a lot of people are a lot more prepared now. There's been considerable investments made in the dairy sector especially in solar and other forms of [energy] generation.

“They can keep the cowsheds operational, keep the stock water pumps operational, that's been a big one, and also a lot of people have made the transition to Starlink for internet purposes… it gives us communications without relying on other networks,” he said.

The Insurance Council received 16,885 claims over the first four days following the storm, with the total coast reaching $158,892,680.

Emergency Management Southland Regional Manager and Controller Phill Mackay said in a statement to 1News "one of the key lessons was the limited awareness of, and preparation for prolonged power and communications outages".

The agency said it was working to strengthen preparedness, especially in the event of another prolonged power outage.

PowerNet’s Paul Blue also had some advice for property owners: "When you have a tree that falls over, you're not just affecting your power, you're affecting your neighbour's power."

"So what we'd ask of people is to look at trees that are close to power lines and either cut them down or trim them, so that it isn't going to cause a problem in the future."