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The last day of winter delivered a gusty blow to Franklin, as trees, trampolines and gazebos left the ground, prompting a number of callouts for Fire and Emergency New Zealand (FENZ).
At least 17 fire trucks and support crews were sent to emergencies across Franklin and surrounding districts on Sunday, as wild weather lashed the region.
MetService meteorologist John Law says southwesterly wind gusts and driving rain struck all of Auckland on August 31.
In Franklin, the strongest winds were measured at 102kp/h between 6pm and 7pm at Ardmore Airport.
“There were some pretty impressive thunderstorms across the north of the country yesterday,” says Law.
“And intense bursts of rain and wind combined made it more of an unusual weather event.”
FENZ Northern communications shift manager Michael Anderson told the Franklin Times properties in Papakura and Māngere had fire trucks attend to several windblown trampolines.
Meanwhile, a gazebo was “blown apart” in Pukekohe and another in Ōpaheke “blew away,” Anderson says.
“It’s important to secure trampolines with pegs or rope during extreme weather events.”
Gazebos need to be “dismantled” and put away, he adds.
Power company Counties Energy was called along with FENZ to another residential property in Onewhero where a trampoline had blown into a powerline.
Trees blocking roads also kept FENZ busy, as fire crews also worked to repair a conservatory roof that had blown off a Te Kauwhata property.
This morning, September 1, about 370 Counties Energy customers were still without power in Franklin.
In Pukekohe, 128 households were waiting on a response.
The Counties Energy website says it’s continuing to “work on outages that happened yesterday evening and this morning”.
While winds are still slightly gusty, Law says the weather outlook for the week is good.
“There is still a southwesterly blowing at about 50kp/h which makes it more noticeable but across the rest of the week looks like there will be ‘nice clear skies’.”
