Most of the callouts for Mayor View and Katikati fire brigades were to clear fallen trees. Photo / Jim Pooley
Most of the callouts for Mayor View and Katikati fire brigades were to clear fallen trees. Photo / Jim Pooley
Katikati residents dealt with debris, damage and even darkness when Cyclone Dovi hit at the weekend.
Both the North Island and upper South Island were battered with 100-150km/h winds causing havoc, power outages and damage caused by fallen trees.
Katikati bus driver Rick Aitken was driving on Sunday during the cyclonic winds and couldn't believe the mayhem throughout the area.
Blocks of polystyrene from a building site were seen shooting though the air ''like frisbees'', Rick says, scattering into Uretara Stream along the Haiku walkway and surrounding area.
A woman tries to stop polystyrene getting into the stream. Photos / Rick Aitken
''There were these guys sheltering behind a tree and they helped stop the foam panels from blowing into the Uretara Stream by placing steel fencing on top of them. Several people tried to remove floating foam from the stream, good on them.
Residents sheltering behind a tree. They tried to stop the polystyrene panels from blowing into the Uretara Stream by placing steel fencing on top.
''There was really good community spirit going on out there — people were pulling up in their cars to help stop the panels from getting into the stream.''
Firefighters nationwide spent Sunday responding to more than 300 calls — mostly in Auckland, Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Taranaki and Wellington.
Katikati Volunteer Fire Brigade started getting calls from 1pm and attended about 12-15 call-outs over the next four or five hours.
Kaitkati deputy chief fire officer Jim Cooper says they haven't had such a busy day for at least a couple of years. Most of the call-outs were to clear fallen trees and there was one damaged power pole.
Mayor View Volunteer Fire Brigade had about seven call-outs from 1pm. All but one was related to the storm, firefighter Jim Pooley says, and they assisted Katikati too.
Another fallen tree along SH2.
Again, fallen trees prompted most of the calls, including two trees at the same property (one landed on the house), and power lines were down at another location.
Jim says the firefighters were engaged the entire eight hours helping the community.
The damaged building, which was under construction, at Claymark on State Highway 2.
The lights went out across the North Island and hundreds still had no power at the start of the week including in Katikati, Omanawa, Te Puna, Bethlehem, Matakana Island, Aongatete, Te Puke, Pongakawa, Greerton, Lower Kaimai, Whakamarama, Pāpāmoa, Ōmokoroa and Tauranga.
This week's weather is more settled after the Cyclone Dovi drama, as a broad ridge of high pressure has brought mostly settled conditions to the country until the weekend, which may bring some showers for Katikati. Cyclone Dovi was a major event, with both extreme winds and rain affecting many parts of central and northern New Zealand. A few rain records were broken. Strong winds wrapping tightly around the cyclone also caused many problems. There were 105km/h gusts in Tauranga and 50 stations across New Zealand hit gusts of 100km/h or more on Sunday. MetService meteorologist Rob Kerr says "not only do we have a largely fine week of weather to look forward to, departing Dovi also took the muggy tropical air with it, so no more humid nights across the North Island. "A much more significant front is expected to displace the ridge of high pressure at the weekend, which is likely to bring rain with it." - MetService New Zealand
