{"id":6934,"date":"2023-08-03T05:24:08","date_gmt":"2023-08-02T17:24:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=6934"},"modified":"2023-08-03T05:24:08","modified_gmt":"2023-08-02T17:24:08","slug":"severe-weather-that-disrupted-travel-caused-power-cuts-forecast-to-ease-on-thursday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=6934","title":{"rendered":"Severe weather that disrupted travel, caused power cuts forecast to ease on Thursday"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"c-sub-nav c-sub-nav--inline \"><\/div>\n<div class=\"content__primary u-divider-bottom@until-medium\">\n<div class=\"article article-news article-news-495027\">\n<header class=\"article__header c-story-header\">\n<div class=\"o-kicker\"><\/div>\n<h1 class=\"c-story-header__headline\">Severe weather that disrupted travel, caused power cuts forecast to ease today<\/h1>\n<div class=\"c-story-header__meta\">\n<div class=\"c-social\" aria-hidden=\"true\">\n<nav class=\"c-social__menu\">\n<div class=\"c-social__buttons\">\n<ul>\n<li><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/nav>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"article__body\">\n<div class=\"photo-captioned photo-captioned-full photo-cntr eight_col \"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/rnz-ressh.cloudinary.com\/image\/upload\/s--lWooiibA--\/ar_16:10,c_fill,f_auto,g_auto,q_auto,w_1050\/v1690928434\/4L4WSLT_MicrosoftTeams_image_18_png\" alt=\"Snow has started settling in Dunedin's hill suburbs, with thick flurries powered by strong winds.\" width=\"1050\" height=\"787\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"photo-captioned__information\"><span class=\"caption\">Snow in Dunedin&#8217;s hill suburbs this morning, with thick flurries powered by strong winds.\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"credit\">Photo:\u00a0RNZ \/ Tess Brunton<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rnz.co.nz\/news\/national\/494960\/wild-weather-snow-closes-roads-in-south-speed-restrictions-on-auckland-harbour-bridge\">Stormy conditions<\/a>\u00a0around the country led to power outages, flight and ferry cancellations and road closures on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>Heavy winds and rain led both the Interislander and Bluebridge ferries to cancel trips across the Cook Strait on Wednesday evening.<\/p>\n<p>The Interislander&#8217;s return sailing from Picton to Aratere was cancelled, along with the 8.30pm\u00a0<i>Kaitaki\u00a0<\/i>sailing from Wellington and its return from Picton at 2.30am on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>The Bluebridge ferry also cancelled its 7.15pm sailing from Picton to Wellington, as well as its 8.30pm return trip.<\/p>\n<p>Multiple flights into Queenstown were cancelled earlier in the day due to snow, while others were delayed.<\/p>\n<p>Wind caused at least three departures and four arrivals to be cancelled in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch airports.<\/p>\n<p>In Auckland, strong wind gusts led to a lower speed limit and a reduced number of lanes on the Harbour Bridge in the morning, with reduced speed limits again in place for a time this evening.<\/p>\n<p>A slip on Remutaka Hill Road between Wellington and Wairarapa this morning led to a temporary speed restriction and a stop and go traffic management system.<\/p>\n<p>A number of state highways were closed in Otago and Southland earlier in the day due to snow, but they had all reopened by about 1pm.<\/p>\n<p>However, Waka Kotahi is still warning motorists to take extra care on State Highway 80 from Lake Aoraki to Mount Cook due to icy conditions.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier on Wednesday, hundreds of North Island households were without power due to gale force winds.<\/p>\n<p>Powerco said crews would continue to work into the evening to restore power to customers, but some households may not have power overnight.<\/p>\n<p>As of 3pm, 492 customers did not have power, but that had decreased to 100 by 8pm.<\/p>\n<p>Most of the people affected are in the Taranaki and Whanganui regions.<\/p>\n<p>On Wednesday afternoon Powerco said more than 2500 customers had been impacted by outages in the last 24 hours.<\/p>\n<p>In the North Island, MetService has a snow warning in place for the Desert Road in the North Island until 6am on Thursday and for Remutaka Hill Road until 9am tomorrow.<\/p>\n<p>A number of watches remain in place for severe gales and heavy snow including in coastal Marlborough, Wellington, Wairarapa, Banks Peninsula and the Chatham Islands.<\/p>\n<p>MetService said the strong cold southwest flow over New Zealand was forecast to ease today.<\/p>\n<p>RNZ<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Severe weather that disrupted travel, caused power cuts forecast to ease today Snow in Dunedin&#8217;s hill suburbs this morning, with thick flurries powered by strong winds.\u00a0Photo:\u00a0RNZ \/ Tess Brunton Stormy conditions\u00a0around the country led to power outages, flight and ferry cancellations and road closures on Wednesday. Heavy winds and rain led both the Interislander and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":6935,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[222,174],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news","category-nz-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6934"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6934\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6936,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6934\/revisions\/6936"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}