Rural homes without power as strong wind hits Hawke's Bay

Ominous clouds hover over the ranges yesterday. Photo / Duncan Brown.

It has not been the greatest start for the school holidays, with about 230 customers without power.

Unison Network spokesman Danny Gough said as expected, strong winds late last night had affected mainly rural customers.

"All our crews have been out there since very early this morning so we are confident at this stage that we will get everyone back on by today but it will just be a methodical process as we work through safely from one site to the next around those rural areas of Napier and Hastings."

He said it was quite "messy" with broken poles and fallen power lines which will take their crews time to replace. Although it is expected all outages will be restored today.

"We appreciate everyone's patience as we work through the restoration process," Gough said.

A strong wind watch is in place for the region until 11pm this evening, with northwest winds approaching severe gale at times. At 9am this morning, 94km/h was recorded at the Takapau Plains.

The strong gusts also toppled multiple trees, tore down power lines and blew road cones across the road late last night and early this morning, a police spokesperson said.

MetService Meteorologist, Kyle Lee said Hawke's Bay had gotten off lightly compared to other areas.

"With the flow of the wind and the systems that have hit us, it is more the western areas of the north island that have been affected by a lot of the heavier rain fall and thunderstorms," Lee said.

"We had a strong front that crossed over the country overnight and we are now sitting behind that feature which is bringing in quite strong and unstable air-mass."

He said they expected it to ease off heading into tomorrow.