KEY POINTS:
Tornado-battered Taranaki residents were bracing themselves for more bad weather tonight with fierce winds forecast to hit the region.
A state of emergency was still in place tonight after at least six tornadoes pummelled the area causing millions of dollars worth of damage and leaving dozens of families homeless.
The tornadoes hit Oakura, Egmont Village, Inglewood and the Waitara area about 5.30pm yesterday trampling houses, trees and power poles.
Civil Defence group controller Graham Young said emergency services would be watching the weather closely.
"Tonight we do have a heavy wind warning up to 110km an hour," he told NZPA.
"We're keeping a close eye on that because obviously damaged properties exposed to those type of winds are vulnerable.
"Tomorrow we will be making a decision about whether we need to lift our emergency declaration."
About 7000 households had their power cut off last night, but that number had been reduced to about 1000 this evening.
"Some of those will take...maybe up to 24 hours to reinstate but we're certainly working on that as quickly and as hard as we can," Mr Young said.
Early assessment indications from the Insurance Council put the damage in New Plymouth at about $2 million, with another $5 million estimated in Oakura. Those figures were expected to rise.
Loss adjusters arrived in Taranaki this morning and had already identified about 50 houses as having sustained at least 80 percent damage. Some have been completely destroyed while some cars have been crushed by fallen trees.
Mr Young said the Insurance Council would be in the region tomorrow to help people with coordinating insurance claims.
The Bank of New Zealand has set up an account for donations to assist with disaster relief. People can make donations at any BNZ branch.
Civil Defence had set up a welfare centre, but most people were staying with friends and family, Mr Young said.
"We haven't had a huge need to accommodate people. People are very resilient in the communities and they're relying on friends and family to put them up and obviously people are very keen to stay in properties when they can."
The clean up would last a few days.
In Oakura this was about 90 percent complete, he said.
"Residents who have tornado debris on their property can put this debris out on the kerbside before midday tomorrow and it will be cleared," Mr Young said.
"We just ask that people don't abuse the opportunity."
The structure and system of civil defence had held up well dealing with disaster, he said.
"Obviously there's always a few little lessons to learn about what we can improve upon, but overall we think the whole structure and the system of civil defence has worked extremely well and we think things have gone good.
"A great response from the community and from all the volunteers and from all the services."
Civil Defence spokesman Rusty Ritchie said the fire service had secured most damaged houses by midday today.
All the roads and the airport were open, he told NZPA.
"We've been really, really fortunate that there's been no serious injury with the extent of the damage. I mean the comment from those that have been out and seen that area - it was pretty devastating."
About 40 houses had been damaged just in Oakura and they did not know how many houses in total were affected, Mr Ritchie said.
"That damage is spread throughout the region still and of course some people are just at the moment taking care for themselves."
- NZPA
