Since the storm hit Unison's network about 10pm on Thursday about 12,300 customers across Hawke's Bay, Rotorua and Taupo have experienced power cuts.
Mr Gough said yesterday's power outages were largely due to vegetation blowing into lines and high winds.
The MetService recorded maximum wind gusts of 56kmh around Napier overnight on Thursday, although no further damage was reported.
A severe weather watch remains in place for severe southwesterly gales in southern Hawke's Bay today.
Besides Central Hawke's Bay District Council reporting trees down on a trio of local roads, the only casualty for CHB was Backpaddock Lake's float-in cinema movie night, which was postponed until next Saturday.
At the Summer Cycling Festival in Napier the BDO Elite and Under 23 time trial went ahead yesterday and event organiser Kevin Murphy said the road race sections of the event would also continue today and Sunday, with two bus shuttles running each day from 10am to 1pm, from pick-up points on Napier Tce, near Ormond Rd, and the other next to the fountain on Hastings St.
Black Barn Winery events manager Francis de Jager confirmed tonight's soldout Bryan Adams concert would go ahead.
"The weather is looking pretty favourable. The wind is going to shift round to the south and we should be pretty sheltered from the wind and getting a bit of sun."
The heavy rain has also mostly put to bed any fears of a possible drought but any more prolonged rain could result in disaster for the region's crop farmers.
Since Boxing Day the MetService has recorded overall rainfall amounts of more than 51mm in Napier and nearly 30mm in Hastings.
In addition, with a deep low forecast to move southeast wards across central New Zealand delivering heavy rain and strong winds to northern and central New Zealand, the MetService yesterday forcast that the Tararua ranges could see further heavy falls.
Most of the area around Hastings and Napier now barely registers on Niwa's Drought Index but Federated Farmers Hawke's Bay president Will Foley said the recent rain would be met "with a range of emotions".
"Some will be happy, others won't be and that will be the likes of cropping farmers in particular who are just starting to get into the full swing of the harvesting season. Those guys are generally looking for warm settled weather at this time of year."
Mr Foley said if it stayed wet, it could put crops at risk.
"We certainly don't want to see continual wet weather for those guys."
Even before the recent spell of weather, Hawke's Bay was not as dry as some other regions, and was now probably "wetter than usual".
"Hawke's Bay farmers are probably doing better than other North Island farmers struggling with drought and feed shortages.
"While those areas that are struggling need to offload stock it's good for areas like Hawke's Bay that can take up that slack.
"It's still early days - we can have a hot dry January and February to come - but farmers will be looking to take advantage of the situation."
The far north of the district around Mahia and the far south, around Dannevirke, are still ranked as "extremely dry", just one step away from "drought".
Niwa's New Zealand Drought Index (NZDI), is a climate data-based indicator of drought that uses five ranks to assess drought conditions - dry, very dry, extremely dry, drought and severe drought.
Central Hawke's Bay, along with coastal Hastings and Napier are now at the lower end of the "dry" scale.
Niwa meteorologist Chris Brandolino said things had certainly improved in Hawke's Bay.
"I think the prospect for rain from our next three-month outlook, which basically covers January, February and March, for Hawke's Bay is showing above normal rainfall.
In the shorter term, expectations were for rainfall to be near normal between now and mid-January as a whole but Mr Brandolino said that would not be evenly distributed.
"The northern part of Hawke's Bay may be below normal rainfall as a whole and the southern part may have far more."
The MetService has forecast improved conditions for this weekend with Napier and Hastings seeing sunny but windy conditions today, with temperatures reaching 22 degrees. There should be more sun on Sunday, temperatures peaking at 21 degrees with an overnight low of 13, before the weather welcomes people back to the working week with a hot, sunny 26-degree day on Monday.
The southern end of the region will stay wet for most of today, with gusty southwesterlies keeping temperature down to 17 degrees, before the sun returns on Sunday.