Chathams storm: 'Everyone's still hunkered down'

Photo / supplied

Ex-tropical Cyclone Pam has now moved away from the Chatham Islands, leaving damage and wary residents in its wake.

MetService said today that Cyclone Pam, a "very intense mid-latitude cyclone", had moved southeast away from the Chatham Islands and winds would ease overnight.

Southwest gales were continuing to gust at 90-100km/h at times today, and would slowly ease overnight, MetService said

Chatham Islands mayor Alfred Preece said the community was looking forward to the winds dying down.

"Today has been quite a blustery day ... we're looking forward to tomorrow," he said.

Engineers would be checking infrastructure such as wharves and bridges over the weekend and next week.

"But we'll have a fair idea of what damage has occurred," Mr Preece said.

Residents on the Chatham islands had been enduring the severe winds, rain and swells of cyclone Pam since Monday night.

"It's definitely hung around a lot longer than we expected," Mr Preece said.

He went to the settlement of Owenga today, but would be speaking to more constituents over the coming days to gauge how the storm had affected people.

"I wanted to check on my dad, he's 93 and my sister's staying with him, so I wanted to go check on him and have a bit of a drive around.

"There's not a lot of people around everyone's still hunkered down."

Chatham Islands Civil Defence spokeswoman Rana Solomon said the area remained in a state of Civil Defence emergency today.

Civil Defence staff were visiting homes in the worst hit areas on the island to ensure people were safe.

"Our response people are out and about in the areas that have no communication and no power. They're just double-checking they're okay and how we can assist them, i.e. emptying out their freezers and bringing them in to areas there are power, and making sure they're safe," she said.

The council was expecting power to be reconnected to the houses in two days' time.

"The winds are still very strong," Ms Solomon said.