Most of the South Island is copping a battering from a weather system that has delivered winds up to 200kmh, and caused chaos for thousands of travellers and power users.
In an update just before midday MetService issued a red strong wind warning for coastal parts of Clutha, Southland, and Stewart Island until 4pm today.
The forecaster said severe gale northwesterlies gusting 120kmh in exposed places would change around midday to severe gale west to southwesterlies with damaging gusts of 150kmh in exposed places.
MetService warns of a threat to life from flying items and falling trees.
"Destructive winds will cause widespread damage including powerlines and roofs, with dangerous driving conditions and significant disruption to transport and power supply."
Power outage
Power is out to more than 1000 customers in the Southern Lakes area.
Aurora Energy's website shows widespread outages including in Queenstown, Glenorchy, the outskirts of Wanaka, Te Anau and Makarora.
PowerNet is also reporting damage to lines and power outages throughout Southland’s networks, and urges people to stay clear of downed lines.
Power lines are down on SH96 between Mataura and Te Tipua and the highway is closed as contractors work to clear them.
At Queenstown Airport, all 13 scheduled arrivals and 14 outgoing flights today have been cancelled and Dunedin Airport has also been affected by multiple flight cancellations.
Rain has been falling heavily in Queenstown and Wānaka this morning.
The Queenstown Lakes District Council says its emergency operations centre is tracking rain, river and lake levels across the district.
The Rees Valley Rd was closed by the Queenstown Lakes District Council about 9.30am.
‘‘It was kind of expected, which would go first, the road or the power,’’ Ms van Gelder said..
‘‘It’s pretty wild up here.
‘‘I’m guessing the eye of the storm is coming through ... we’ve just had wind that was circular, not a tornado — I’ve never seen that before.’’
Current closures:
- Glenorchy-Queenstown Road (trees down/flooding)
- Rees Valley Road, Glenorchy (flooding)
- Mount Aspiring Road, Wānaka (flooding)
- SH6 Makarora - Haast (slip)
Lake Wakatipu is at its first flood warning level at Queenstown and approaching it at Glenorchy.
Lake Wānaka has almost reached its first flood warning level.
Some 88mm of rain fell north of Glenorchy overnight, and 25mm at Wānaka.
It was also expecting flooding in low-lying Queenstown streets near Lake Wakatipu and on the foreshore of Lake Wānaka.
In a statement, Tom Dyer, the Otago Regional Council's general manager science and resilience, said people could access its environmental data portal for real-time monitoring of rivers and lakes.
An orange heavy rain warning is in place for the headwaters of the Otago and Canterbury lakes and rivers, and the Westland ranges.
The Central Otago District Council says there are "a number of areas" across the region with surface flooding, and heavy rain is continuing to fall.
The council said Clyde, Alexandra, Lowburn and Pisa Moorings were the worst-affected areas.
It advised motorists to travel only if it was essential, and to "please stay off roads if you do not need to be out there".
The whole of the South Island is being lashed by the wild weather, which has cut power to tens of thousands of people and caused scores of flight cancellations.
Queenstown Airport sustainability and corporate affairs general manager Sara Irvine said while there were a lot of people at the terminal who had been disrupted, but due to the extent of the cancellations across the domestic and international networks ''it's not very crowded''.
Ms Irvine said staff had been advising passengers due to travel today to contact their airline directly, or check the Queenstown Airport website for the most up-to-date information.
"We know that some of the airlines will make decisions a bit later in the day ... going into the long weekend there could be some ad-hoc flights to try and support disrupted passengers, but that's not confirmed.''
Those who were due to travel from Queenstown Airport this weekend were also advised to consider alternative methods of getting to the airport, such as park and ride, because ''it's likely the Queenstown Airport parks will be quite full".
- Allied Media
