It’s been a wet and windy 48 hours in Northland as ex-tropical cyclone Lola touched down, bringing flooding, strong winds, and power outages across the region.
This time it was Kaikohe at the centre of attrition, recording a month and a half’s worth of rain and power outages across the small Northland community.
Far North District Council mayor, Moko Te Pania says it felt like a case of deja vu for his region.
“This is the 14th major storm that has hit us in Northland this year.”
“It was really bad the other night; 15 towns in the Far North were without power because of the winds. That number has now dropped to five communities still without power.”
Tepania says the council has learned many lessons from this year’s extreme weather events.
“Our people need three absolute necessities: roads, power and cell phone coverage. So we are really concentrating on restoring power at this time.”
“During Cyclone Gabrielle, thousands of people suffered from no power for more than two weeks. The hope is our relations won’t have to wait too long for the power to return.”