Council staff were still in clean-up mode yesterday after Friday night's gales brought gusts up to 130kmh to Dunedin.
In the most graphic example of the winds' force, a bus shelter on Pine Hill Rd was wrenched from the ground - despite bolts anchoring it - and blown on to its back, blocking the footpath.
There were no reports of injury or anybody nearby when the structure toppled.
Dunedin City Council roading maintenance engineer Peter Standring said it was expected the bus shelter's minor damage could be repaired, and the structure placed back in position and anchored again.
"The extreme weather conditions can be held accountable for that one, I think.
"The strong winds tested a lot of structures around town, especially the trees," he said.
The damage was discovered in the hours after Friday's gale-force winds brought down trees and branches across parts of Otago and Southland.
The winds even blew over a truck in Wyndham, bringing down power lines in the process, although the driver escaped without injury.
Council parks manager Lisa Wheeler said clean-up operations had begun and staff and contractors were likely to be busy for "two or three days" yet.
Trees and branches had come down at 20 sites around the city, and some badly damaged trees were still standing but would have to come down, including at Mornington Park, she said.
High winds at the weekend are likely to have contributed to a power cut in the Waitati area yesterday afternoon.
PowerNet Ltd network operations general manager Gary Pritchard said 950 customers were affected by the power cut at 1.27pm, and electricity was restored to 700 customers by remote switching five minutes later.
For safety reasons, power could not be restored to the remaining customers until 4.43pm, after contractors had undertaken checks and repairs.
Waitati School was among those affected.
Investigations were continuing but the problem was likely to have resulted from storm conditions, he said.
