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Hundreds of North Island households have been hit by power cuts as gale-force winds continue to lash regions still reeling from the weekend's storm.
About 58,000 customers across the North Island suffered power cuts from midday Friday, when the storm brought trees down, broke poles and damaged other components.
Powerco network operations manager Phil Marsh said all but around 200 customers had their electricity restored today.
However, a further 2000 customers in north Taranaki, Manawatu and Wairarapa have been hit by outages as a new front brings gales of up to 130km/h to the regions.
"We still have a lot of work to do and we will continue until all customers are reconnected," Mr Marsh said.
It was likely some customers would be without power tonight as conditioned worsened.
Powerco had been in touch with Federated Farmers in the worst affected areas to prioritise restoring power to dairy farmers with distressed cattle.
MetService said strong northwest winds were expected to batter Wairarapa and Hawke's Bay south of Napier until tomorrow morning.
A gust this afternoon blew over a 6.5 tonne trailer after forcing the truck off State Highway 2, 17km north of Masterton, this afternoon.
Nobody was injured and a crane was working to right the trailer.
MetService forecaster Bob McDavitt said cold air would continued to be "shovelled" over the country from time to time until the weekend.
Squally showers would also tend to strike in a random fashion rather than affect wide areas.
Meanwhile, Southlanders already dealing with the effects of the weekend's storm are being urged to prepare for more snow dumpings over the next two days.
The region was hit hard by heavy snow at the weekend, causing roofs to collapse and sag, including Stadium Southland and a number of supermarkets and department stores.
A respite from the weather overnight and this morning offered some relief, but residents were warned that more snow was on the way.
"The scale of the response will be reduced this afternoon, but with high winds and further snow forecast for the next 48 hours, the emergency operations centre is not being stood down completely," Civil Defence controller Neil Cruickshank said.
He urged people to take stock of their ability to cope with another onslaught of bad weather and take action today, saying many had been caught out when all Invercargill's supermarkets closed yesterday.
"Every household should be prepared to cope by having at least three days supply of essential food and water."
Building owners were responsible for ensuring buildings were safe before deciding to open them, Mr Cruickshank said, and anyone who suspected their premises were at risk from the snow were encouraged to get advice from a structural engineer.
MetService said heavy rain warnings remained in place for the west of the South Island.
- NZPA
