Clutha District Council said water and wastewater services are overwhelmed while in Dunedin power is being restored but the clean-up from yesterday's storm is expected to take weeks.
In Clutha a district-wide conserve notice is in place and residents are being urged to "be vigilant, conserve water, and avoid flushing unless you need to."
"Many of our farming communities are isolated, due to power and communication outages with large amounts of damage throughout the district."
It was likely the situation would continue into the weekend.
"If you are without power or water, we are recommending that residents make the most of the long weekend and get out of town, if you have relatives or friends you can stay with."
A community-led drop in centre had been set up in the Tyrone Lounge of the Cross Recreation Centre in Balclutha. This would be open until 7pm tonight. Power and wifi is available, as well as refreshments.
A Red Cross a drop-in centre will be opened in Lawrence at Simpson Park on Thurso Street between 5.30pm and 7.30pm for needs assessments and refreshments.
Thousands across Otago and Southland are without electricity and some Southland towns have no drinking water.
Thousands without power
Thousands in Dunedin are still without power and residents in Mosgiel and the Otago Peninsula are being urged to conserve water amid the clean-up from yesterday's storm.
Over 1300 households remain without power across Dunedin and Mosgiel, Aurora Energy said this afternoon.
The scale of repairs needed across their Dunedin network from Berwick to the tip of the Otago Peninsula had stretched crews far and wide, general manager future network and operations Matt Settle said.
“I have never seen Dunedin with this volume of separate fault calls. Today, we’ve continued to assess the damage and make repairs.
"During this work, crews have come across additional faults across the network that also need attention."
By 3.15pm, it estimated a time of at least 4.30pm or 8pm today for power to be restored to most remaining affected areas.
"We’ve reduced the number of impacted customers from around 16,000 at the peak yesterday to just over 1300, and we still expect to see that number drop by the end of the day,” he said.
Fault crews would continue to work into the long weekend to ensure remaining outages are resolved on Saturday.
"While there are no issues with the water supply, you're encouraged to be mindful of the amount of wastewater going down your pipes.
"If possible, please limit showering and flushing as much as possible until the power is back on and our wastewater pump stations are back up and running."
Roads across Dunedin are still closed and Portobello Rd is down to one lane.
The clean-up is under way across the city but the council says some repairs could take weeks.
DCC general manager 3 Waters, property and urban development David Ward Five crews have been operating around the city, working to clear trees and other debris, fix damaged signs, and reopen roads.
The elm trees in Anzac Ave, which were toppled by Thursday’s ferocious gusts, would be removed in due course, but the priority was ensuring public safety by removing damaged trees and tree limbs.
“Our crews are flat out dealing with immediate risks to public safety, including hanging tree branches and compromised trees, so the Anzac Avenue trees are a secondary priority.
“In the meantime, we ask members of the public not to climb on them and not to stop on the road to take photos. Be safe and let us get on with the work.”
Meanwhile, the University of Otago has confirmed exams will go ahead today, after been postponed yesterday.
Day of destruction
Yesterday a 10-minute spell of mind-blowingly strong wind wreaked havoc and caused widespread disruption in Dunedin, uprooting massive trees, tearing branches from trunks and leaving people struggling to stand.
The wind, which landed about 1.40pm, blew over fences, ripped out train signals and signs, lifted roofs, blew over 2.5-tonne shipping containers and left some residents without power overnight.
The biggest gust recorded by Port Otago was 170kmh at Taiaroa Head at 1.50pm, though gusts hovered around 100kmh for several hours after that.
In the inner city, the port’s equipment recorded the strongest gust, of 100kmh, at 1.40pm at the T-shed on the wharf.
MetService officially recorded a top wind speed of 72kmh in the city.
At the peak of the storm, more than 16,000 homes and businesses in Otago were without power.
In the more spectacular scenes of tree carnage around the city, two massive trees in Anzac Ave outside the Hocken Library, planted 100 years ago for the South Seas Exhibition, were ripped from the ground taking tonnes of roots and dirt with them, mirroring a scene from a Hollywood disaster film.
The weather was even worse in Southland, where the storm, with similar severity, took several hours to pass, causing extensive damage to power lines, roads and services and leaving large parts of the province without power.
Further north, in the Queenstown Lakes area Lakes Wakatipu and Wanaka were still rising last night, though levels were expected to peak this morning. Some surface flooding is expected in Glenorchy and Kingston as a result.
Despite the chaos, there were few reports of injuries.
One person received a moderate injury in an accident on SH1 near Milton, and a woman whose van was crushed by a falling tree as she drove in Invercargill escaped injury.
In Dunedin, Knox Church lost more than 100 tiles from its roof.
Church Deacon Paul Crack said the tiles blew off in the extraordinary gust of wind.
He believed it was the first time the tiles had been blown off the roof since the church was built in 1870.
"We are trying to find them as they are dangerous slate tiles, sharp as knives. We don’t want them flying through the air," he said.
A group of pickleball players ran for their lives when the roof started to rip apart at the Otago Badminton Centre in Victoria Rd.
"Sheets of iron started peeling off ... rubbish, polystyrene and asbestos started floating around the room — I thought the whole thing was going to go," Christine Ebbett said.
Ms Ebbett said they were running down a walkway between two buildings when roofing iron blocked their way.
"When we drove home it was quite frightening as well - all the traffic lights were swinging back and forward very fast."
Logan Park was covered in branches and two large trees fell across Butts Rd, blocking traffic.
The wind had also caused some damage to the Dunedin Ice Stadium roof and at Forbury Park, while the Dunedin Railway Station lost tiles from part of its roof and Forsyth Barr Stadium suffered minor damage to some roof flashings.
The University of Otago postponed exams in the afternoon.
Dunedin City Council city services general manager Scott MacLean said the council had logged more than 50 jobs across the city’s roading network, mainly involving fallen trees.
Contractors were clearing and reopening roads only where it was safe to do so.
He asked that water be conserved as power outages had affected pump stations though the council was taking a precautionary approach.
Several roads were blocked or closed after power lines were brought down.
Multiple roads including several state highways around Milton, Gore and Mataura were closed for a couple of hours.
Port Otago chief executive Kevin Winders said multiple 12m closed and empty dry shipping containers were toppled by the wind at the Ravensbourne depot.
"They each weigh about two and a-half tonnes, so the wind was pretty intense to be able to move them around like that."
They would use cranes to re-stack the containers today, if possible.
No staff members were around the containers when they fell.
The Dunedin Botanic Garden was closed about 2.30pm as was the Dunedin Waste Transfer Centre.
The whisper dishes outside Tūhura Otago Museum were
"ripped out of the ground like weeds" — the first time since they were built there about 30 years ago.
The exhibit allows people to whisper into one dish and be heard clearly by someone standing at the other dish, about 20m away.
Museum marketing manager Charlie Buchan said when the wind hit, everyone thought the windows were going to cave in.
"We looked out and then a big tree fell, and then we saw one of the whisper dishes take flight like a flying saucer."
Once the wind died down, staff went outside to secure the dishes.
MetService meteorologist Claire O'Connor said Dunedin reached 25°C just before the wind hit and dropped to 15°C within half an hour after it passed over the city.
MetService recorded a top gust of 83kmh at Dunedin Airport.
Nugget Point, in the Clutha District, recorded a top gust of 165kmh at what was a very exposed station, she said.
Invercargill’s top gust was 137kmh, and Gore recorded a 125kmh gust. She said this was due to Southland bearing the brunt of the front after it made landfall.
Southwest Cape, at the southern tip of Stewart Island, bore the full brunt of the wind, recording a top gust of 190kmh.
Aurora had multiple callouts for power outages throughout Dunedin and Central Otago-Queenstown Lakes as did PowerNet further south.
Strongest gusts
Dunedin city 72kmh
Dunedin Airport 83kmh
Nugget Point 165kmh
Invercargill 137kmh
Gore 125kmh
Southwest Cape 190kmh
Source: MetService
