The aftermath of cyclone Gabrielle from above in Hawke's Bay. Video / Hastings District Council, Matt O'Kane
Napier residents are queuing for hours to refill gas bottles and refuel their vehicles as a severe thunderstorm watch is in place.
It comes as the full extent of the destruction from Cyclone Gabrielle is starting to dawn.
Thousands of people are out of their homes, many remain “uncontactable” on a missing-person database, and new images reveal wrecked roads and bridges, properties, and infrastructure.
Nearly 150,000 people were still without power across the North Island yesterday - and Hawke’s Bay Regional Council said this morning that Napier should expect to be without electricity for the next two weeks.
There is a large line of people waiting to get their gas bottles filled at the Caltex in Napier on Hyderabad Rd.
“I know that the freezer has got a lot of stuff for me to start cooking up if we don’t get the power back very soon.
”He said he would eventually have to throw out food in the freezer. There’s going to be a lot of waste.”
Gary James. Photo / Georgina Campbell
He had a barbecue for cooking and a gas burner to boil water for cups of tea.
Eftpos is available at Caltex. There are some essential supplies on the shelves like medicine, sugar, flour and canned food.
Police officers were on site keeping watch of the situation.
H Whiri had been waiting in line for petrol for three hours.
He resorted to filling up a plastic fuel can, and running back and forth to the service station, because it was faster than waiting to get the car to the pumps.
Whiri said he has been filling up to five litres at a time, which costs about $10.
He said the car’s petrol tank was very low and he wanted to fill it up in case they needed to head to higher ground again.
“We’re doing alright, we’ve got a gas barbecue and cooking for our elderly next door and boiling water for our little newborn baby.
H Whiri realised it was faster to buy gas and take it to his vehicle, instead of waiting in the vehicle queue. Photo / Georgina Campbell
Meanwhile, thunderstorms forecast for parts of the North Island could produce rates of 25mm-50mm an hour but pinpointing where they would take place “will be difficult”.
A severe thunderstorm watch was in place between 3pm to 10pm for Hawke’s Bay, Tairāwhiti Gisborne, Bay of Plenty, Rotorua and Taupō.
MetService meteorologist Andrew James said they would be “short-lived and fast-moving”.
“MetService is only expecting a few thunderstorms to pop up this afternoon – most likely in the Bay of Plenty region and the Tairāwhiti Gisborne and Hawke’s Bay ranges.
“This type of activity is always spotty and pinpointing exactly where impacts will be is difficult – that’s the complexity of forecasting thunderstorms and why we have such a broad area under watch.
“Although thunderstorms through Tairāwhiti Gisborne ranges of this sort are not normally an issue, this extra rainfall could exacerbate the already vulnerable area.”
Any thunderstorms were expected to be localised and very different to the widespread rain from the past few days.
Thunderstorm activity would ease late tonight and a few showers would hang around into Friday morning but settled weather was expected across the country this weekend.
Eastland Network is advising people to conserve power as 4500 of its customers across Tairāwhiti and Hawke’s Bay remain without power, including more than 1600 in Wairoa.
”The Gisborne city area and parts of Wairoa have power. Ruatoria, Te Araroa, Tokomaru Bay and Tolaga Bay townships, and Mahia, are running on generators,” a post by Eastland Network on Facebook said.
Cyclone Gabrielle's destruction is evident in new images from Esk Valley. Photo / Warren Buckland
They are advising people to treat lines as live at all times following reports of people using chainsaws and vehicles to clear trees and roads where powerlines are down.
”This is a serious risk to your safety – keep well clear.
”We’ll post updates on our FB page, and encourage everyone to follow the local Civil Defence pages and listen to the news.”
Unison was also asking reconnected customers in Hawke’s Bay to conserve power use as it continues restoration efforts. This is due to limited power supply coming into the region from Transpower’s damaged Redclyffe substation.
It has restored power to 39,400 customers since Cyclone Gabrielle hit on Monday night, cutting power to around 77,000 homes across Hawke’s Bay, Taupo and Rotorua.
There are still 37,548 homes still without power in Hawke’s Bay, 31,527 of these are in Napier which has been affected by a loss of supply from Transpower’s Redclyffe substation that feeds most of Napier and parts of Hastings.
Unison relationship manager Danny Gough said restoring power to Hawke’s Bay “continues to be challenging” due to limited regional supply.
“We’re asking all Hawke’s Bay customers now reconnected to the network to please conserve power where possible.
“We can’t stress this enough as a genuine plea for people to look at every opportunity to save power from turning off air-conditioning and devices on standby to being mindful with the lights and any high-consumption devices.
“This will help to manage and distribute the limited supply we do have coming into the region from Transpower.”
Yesterday, Unison was able to provide power to some key locations in central Napier.
It was working with Transpower on an emergency solution to bypass Redclyffe through to Transpower’s Whakatu substation. This will enable the remaining parts of Hastings urban areas to be restored and begin the process of restoring parts of Napier.
However, to restore supply to all parts of Napier, Transpower must complete repairs to its damaged Redclyffe substation, which it is in the process of planning.
“We understand our business community and local industries are also concerned about the limited electricity supply coming into the region,” Gough said.
“I want to assure them and everyone else that whilst this is an unprecedented situation, we are doing all we can to restore households and businesses as quickly as possible.
“We are working closely with Transpower and Civil Defence to allocate the available supply to restore power to critical community infrastructure and households, and at this difficult time, we must prioritise lives ahead of livelihoods.
“As more supply is made available from Transpower, we will continue this restoration process which will begin to include some commercial and industrial areas.”
Given the widespread impact and regional loss of supply from Transpower, customers were asked to disregard the estimated times for power to be restored on the outages page on the Unison website.
The estimated restoration times were based on normal working conditions and not unprecedented cyclone damage.
