Wellington, April 13 - Residents who left their homes ahead of Cyclone Vaianu's strike on the North Island were being permitted to return as the system tracked away from New Zealand, officials said. Local recovery teams were engaged in clearing roads, removing fallen trees and conducting checks for potential landslides, while power companies continued to log unplanned outages and a number of roads remained closed.
Julie Jukes, acting mayor of Whakatane - one of the communities affected by the storm - described the event to Radio New Zealand as the worst weather she had seen in her experience, but emphasised the priority was safety. She said, "the main thing is that everybody was safe and its only damage to property and trees, power and things like that."
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon told Radio New Zealand that the country's emergency arrangements had functioned effectively. He said, "the emergency system had worked well, people had prepared for the storm and the response had been much better than in previous emergencies."
National forecaster MetService reported in a post on X late on Sunday that Cyclone Vaianu had moved offshore and was positioned to the east of the North Island. By Monday morning the only warnings still in place were for large ocean swells off the coast of the lower North Island.
Emergency and utility crews have been prioritising restoration of essential services and re-establishing safe access. On-the-ground work has focused on removing debris from roadways, dealing with downed vegetation and inspecting slopes that may have been destabilised by the storm's heavy conditions.
New Zealand has experienced a run of severe weather episodes this year. The country endured heavy rain in January that triggered a landslide and resulted in six deaths, an event officials continue to reference when assessing current storm impacts and response performance.
Summary of current situation
- Evacuees who left ahead of Cyclone Vaianu are being gradually allowed to return as the storm moves offshore.
- Cleanup operations are under way: crews are clearing roads, removing fallen trees and checking for possible landslides.
- Power companies report ongoing unplanned outages and some roads remain closed; only coastal swell warnings persisted by Monday morning.
Operational notes
Authorities have credited public preparedness and the emergency system's performance for limiting harm to people. Local leaders stressed that, while damage to property and infrastructure has occurred, no further casualties linked to this cyclone were reported as the storm moved away.