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Strong winds cut power, disrupt flights in Wellington
Wellington, Oct. 14 (Xinhua) Powerful winds were hammering New Zealand capital Wellington and large parts of the lower North Island on Monday.
Residents are being warned to take care on the roads and watch out for downed powerlines with gusts expected to batter the region through the night.
Thousands of homes remain without power, emergency services are flat out and air travel has been disrupted.
Most flights in and out of Wellington Airport were canceled on Monday evening until further notice after disruptions throughout the day.
Air New Zealand said high winds forced the airline to suspend all of its domestic operations into and out of Wellington for the rest of the evening.
Many of the ferries on Wellington Harbour have been canceled on Monday night because winds picked up strongly between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m..
Buses have been diverted away from the busy inner city Willis Street after three floors or scaffolding collapsed in high winds. Authorities say nobody was injured and they are asking people to stay away from the area because scaffolding and debris have fallen onto power lines.
And the Transport Agency asked drivers on their way home to take extreme care on the roads as the wind gusts were strong enough to knock over campervans and motorcyclists.
Wind gusts of up to 150 kilometers an hour battered parts of the capital, forcing some flights in and out of the city to abort or to cancel.
MetService meteorologist Dan Corbett said as the front moves north, it is squeezing up against a high to the northeast of New Zealand.
Residents are being asked to take care while driving and were urged to tie down lose items outside before it got dark.
In the central city, scaffolding and debris were blown onto roads busy with peak hour traffic.
Residents can expect strong winds across central New Zealand to die down at around midnight tonight.
Winds are heading north up through the Wairarapa, Manawatu and Rangitikei.
In the South Island, more than 1000 homes west of Christchurch are also without electricity for the night after the storm earlier ripped through the South Island.
Further south, the Milford Road is closed from the Hollyford turn-off for the second night in a row because of high winds and driving rain, and snow predicted on Monday night.
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