State of Emergency to continue in New Plymouth District

Description of situation

• The local state of emergency will remain in place for New Plymouth District but will be lifted for Stratford District and South Taranaki District at noon today.
• Residents of New Plymouth District are urged to conserve water. Cyclone Gita caused a large tree to fall and destroy a pipe bridge one of the New Plymouth District Council’s biggest water pipes. This has cut of water supply to eastern parts of the District and may result in outages this afternoon.
• Residents should only use water for drinking and cooking. There is a total ban on using water for gardens or outside washing.
• The New Plymouth District Council has a team on the ground to fix the pipe. For more information see the NPDC Facebook page and website, or call the Council on 06 759 6060.
• Strong winds have eased but impacts of the storm are still lingering.
• 13,200 Taranaki properties were still without power at 9am. Powerco has brought in extra crews to help with repairs. There are working to make downed lines safe and to restore power.
• State highways are clear, as far as we know, but some local roads may still be obstructed by fallen trees. Drivers should be careful.
• Schools are making their own decisions on whether to close, based on how the storm has impacted them and whether they have power, and what their water situation is. Information is being collated on Taranaki More FM’s Facebook page and shared on the Taranaki Civil Defence Facebook page.
• Power outages are affecting cellphone and landline coverage in South Taranaki. Ten cells sites are down in the district, and landlines are affected in Okato, Opunake, Warea and Rahotu.

Declaration status
• A local state of emergency will remain in place for the New Plymouth District but will be lifted for Stratford and South Taranaki Districts at noon.

What’s being done?
• The Taranaki Emergency Coordination Centre is supporting emergency services and utility providers responding to the storm.
• Powerco crews are working to restore power across the region.
• Chorus crews are working on telephone and cellphone outages.
• New Plymouth District Council is working on repairs to the water supply feeder.

Public safety/health instructions
• Phone 111 if life is at risk.
• Travel if you need to, but be aware that roads may be blocked in places.
• Conserve water, especially residents in the eastern part of New Plymouth District.
• If your power is out, be patient as crews carry out repairs. Check the outages information on the Powerco website.
• Keep an eye on the Facebook and Twitter feeds of Taranaki Civil Defence, Powerco, NZTA and New Plymouth District Council.
• Treat all downed powerlines as live. Do not go near them. If you see a downed powerline suspect it may not have been reported, call 111 or 0800 27 27 27.

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