Contractors in Napier are putting the finishing touches to a month's work clearing trees and reinstating pavements which were ripped apart in a snap storm on the night of April 15.
Yesterday crews from Hastings firm Topline Contracting were completing pavements in McDonald St and Geddis Ave, which were the scenes of most of the roadside devastation and the destruction of more than a dozen mainly melia trees, while Higgins crews were working in Sturm's Gully in an operation that is closing Lighthouse Rd access to the Bluff Hill Lookout during the daytime for at least two days this week.
About 10 trees were felled in McDonald St, which runs from Latham St to Carnell St and is bisected by Kennedy Rd, while about 20 were felled in streets near the Maraenui Shopping Centre, a smaller number closing nearby Geddis Ave.
A falling tree in McDonald St wrecked one parked car a short distance from McLean Park in the Thursday night storm at the start of the Easter holiday weekend.
At the other end of the street, near Carnell St, a tree badly damaged a vehicle parked only a short while earlier by a woman who'd driven from Auckland that day to evade Cyclone Cook, at least two cars were hit by trees in Havelock North, and houses were also hit by trees in Napier and Flaxmere, although damage was mainly minor.