Dozens of weekend events have been cancelled or postponed as much of New Zealand battens down against a storm which last night seemed likely to go comparatively easy on Hawke's Bay.
Cyclone Lusi, just days after the anniversary of the well-remembered Cyclone Bola which devastated Hawke's Bay, the East Coast and areas further north in March 1988, was forecast to pass to the northwest of North Cape about midday today as it descends on the country from the tropics.
Severe weather warnings for heavy rain and easterly gales were in place for Northland, Auckland, Coromandel Peninsula, Bay of Plenty, Gisborne, Nelson and Marlborough, similar to the area covered by warnings before the once-in-a-lifetime Cyclone Bola brought more than 700mm of rain in three days to some areas of Hawke's Bay, destroying the Wairoa town bridge and causing widespread flooding and erosion across the region.
Nothing as severe was expected in Hawke's Bay from Lusi, which was last night being forecast to bring up to 100mm of rain in the Kaweka, Kaimanawa and Ruahine ranges, flooding the rivers across the Heretaunga plains, where up to 40mm of rain was forecast, starting overnight but falling mainly in the 12 hours to 6am tomorrow. Up to 60mm was being forecast south of Cape Kidnappers.
Also forecast was a swell of up to 5 metres at sea, but regional Civil Defence emergency management group manager Ian Macdonald said the seas were not expected to be damaging.