Category 3 cyclone pummels New Zealand

WELLINGTON, New Zealand: A category 3 tropical cyclone pummelled New Zealand’s North Island on Sunday, triggering flooding and damaging infrastructure but authorities were relieved it bypassed Auckland, the country’s most populous city.

Cyclone Vaianu made landfall in the Bay of Plenty on the east coast, where hundreds of residents had already evacuated from their homes or were warned to stay clear of heavy sea conditions.

Townships in the Bay of Plenty and neighbouring Coromandel regions also bore the brunt of winds exceeding 130 kilometres per hour (81 mph), strong enough to lift roofs from houses and cut power to about 5,000 customers.

Emergency services received hundreds of callouts but there were no initial reports of injuries.

New Zealand’s weather forecaster MetService had described Vaianu as a “multi-hazard, potentially life-threatening event”, as it moved south across the Pacific Ocean.

Numerous regions had been placed under states of emergency on Saturday but several of them escaped the worst of the cyclone’s force, including Auckland, home to 1.8 million residents.

Emergency Management Minister Mark Mitchell said the damage could have been greater.

“It’s moved more to the fringes and more to the east, which means that we haven’t quite seen the intensity that we had prepared for or that we thought we were going to get hit with. So that is good news,” Mitchell told journalists.

Mitchell warned some areas would continue to experience intense rainfall and potential coastal inundation over the remainder of the day.

The storm was expected to cross the eastern North Island and exit through Hawke’s Bay later on Sunday, tracking a similar path to that of Cyclone Gabrielle, which battered the country three years ago.

Gabrielle was more damaging, claiming 11 lives and costing New Zealand an estimated US$8.5 billion in repairs.