Strong winds batter Taranaki, 'City Centre is like a ghost town' - reports

BREAKING NEWS: Severe weather is causing issues all around Taranaki including power out over much of the region, car accidents, roofs being lifted off homes, emergency services pushed to the limits and flights cancelled.

HIGHWAY CLOSED TILL 10AM TOMMOROW

BREAKING NEWS: infonews.co.nz can now confirm that the New Plymouth highway will be closed till tommorow 10am when the conditions will be assessed. 

Storage sheds have smashed all over the highway making driving very dangerous.

Emergency services are at the scene and detours are in place. 

this is breaking news, more to follow..

New Plymouth Airport closed for the day early, cancelling numerous flights and causing problems for passengers.

One New Plymouth resident bound for Wellington who had their flight cancelled said that the conditions were dangerous and she was happy it was cancelled but "all flights are cancelled till Tuesday"

POWER OUT

Power is out all over Taranaki and most power companies are saying power will not be restored until 10.30pm at the earliest.

Our reporter Michael Riley said driving conditions is dangerous. 

A tree hit the car while driving down the 'ghost town' one way, creating a scratch.

Emergency services are being pushed to the limits, earlier today we were told Oakura were without a fire engine because of the strech in emergency calls.

EXPLOSION IN PATEA INVOLVING POWER LINES

infonews.co.nz can now confirm an explosion two miniutes out of Patea involved power lines where lines are 100 metres down a road.

Emergency services are at the scene and power is out in the surrounding area.

More to come.

SEVERAL CAR ACCIDENTS

Their have been several car accidents meanwhile reisdent of New Plymouth Dawn Anchette told us that a big branch smashed into her car windscreen and smashed causing injuries.

ROOFS LIFTING OFF

Emergency services are at several Taranaki properties where roofs are lifting off or have came off.

infonews.co.nz reporter Michael Riley went around New Plymouth to see what the ruckus was all about and he told us that it was really bad.

"Its really bad. Dangerous conditions. Branches everywhere. Lights off"

He told us the suburb of Westown is like a "ghost town" and no lights are on and all shops are closed.

OAKURA WITHOUT FIRE TRUCK - stuff.co.nz

Oakura's Volunteer Fire Brigade are without a truck after theirs was badly damaged by a falling tree in New Plymouth this evening.

No one was hurt in the incident but the truck is unable to be used.

The crew had been attending a shed fire on Barrett Rd in New Plymouth when the tree fell on the truck, New Plymouth fire senior station officer Ian Drewery said.

''It was a pretty big tree. It fell on the truck and destroyed that a bit so the Oakura guys are without a truck right now,'' he said.

The incident is one of dozens keeping fire crews busy tonight.

At just before 6pm fire crews in New Plymouth adopted the multi-incident procedure.

Mr Drewery said this happened when a large amount of call-outs were made. It cut down on radio use and allocated jobs to units as they came up.

''There are lots of power lines coming down. Lots of trees coming down, tiles coming roofs. I'm advising a lot of people to shift to other parts of the house if they can but if they still need our help the have to call 111 and join the queue.''

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