WELLINGTON, April 13 (Reuters) – New Zealanders who evacuated ahead of a cyclone that battered the North Island on Sunday were gradually being allowed to return home as the storm moved away from the country.
Local media reported cleanup crews were clearing roads, removing fallen trees and checking for possible landslides. Power companies continued to report unplanned outages, while some roads remained closed.
Julie Jukes, acting mayor of Whakatane, one of the areas hit by the cyclone, told Radio New Zealand it had brought the worst weather she had ever seen, but “the main thing is that everybody was safe and it’s only damage to property and trees, power and things like that.”
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon told Radio New Zealand the emergency system had worked well, people had prepared for the storm and the response had been much better than in previous emergencies.
New Zealand forecaster MetService said in a post on X late on Sunday that Cyclone Vaianu had moved offshore and was east of the North Island.
By Monday morning, the only warnings still in place were for large ocean swells off the coast of lower North Island.
New Zealand has been hit by a series of severe weather events this year, including heavy rain in January that triggered a landslide and killed six people.
(Reporting by Lucy Craymer; Editing by Chris Reese)
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