Cyclone Gabrielle has caused damage around Tauranga overnight.

"We had multiple reports of trees falling and debris on the roads all around the city, road signs damaged, and power lines down. Some areas lost power," says a Tauranga City Council spokesperson.
 
Tauranga City Council say MetService recorded one of Tauranga's highest gusts of wind at about 9.10pm - up to 90km per hour.

A Tauranga resident living on board his yacht at Tauranga Bridge Marina says he noticed the biggest gust on the Port of Tauranga harbour conditions site.

'It updates every three minutes. It was quite rock and rolly here, so I immediately went on the site to see what the wind speeds were and it was 73 knots of wind which is equivalent to 135 km per hour."

Fergusson Park on Tuesday morning. Photo: Vaughn Burgess.

Emergency services and our contractors have been doing an excellent job clearing the roads as fast as they can.

Much of the debris and fallen trees found overnight were pushed to the sides of the roads. The priority was to clear the road, and debris removal will take place over the coming days.

Fallen trees on SH29A near Maungatapu. Photo: Cameron Avery.

There will be disruptions around the road network today and detours will be in place.

"To give our crews space to clean up, we would appreciate if people would limit their travel on the roads today," says a council spokesperson.

"There will be contractors around the city working on the clean-up, so if you are out and about, please take care and be considerate of the work they need to do.

Tree damage at Maungatapu. Photo: Cameron Avery.

Evacuation centres
"Thanks to the Trustpower Baypark staff who looked after our evacuation centre last night," says a council spokesperson.

Trustpower Baypark is now closed. No one required use of the centre overnight.

"A special thank you to our local marae who volunteered their time overnight to open their doors to a small number of people who self-evacuated."

Parks, reserves and walkways
We don't yet know the condition of our parks, reserves and walkways after last night. Our team will assess these as soon as they can. At this stage yesterday's guidance remains:

• All tracks on Mauao, including Te Ara Tūtanga (Mauao base track) and Moturiki (Leisure Island) remain closed. We need to check the track conditions before we can safely reopen.
• Fergusson Park, Kulim Park, Beach Road Reserve, Omanu Beach carpark, Pāpāmoa Domain, Taylor Reserve Carpark and Harrisons Cut Beach Accessway are closed. This includes freedom camping areas in those parks.
• Please avoid walkways due to falling branches and take care when moving under any trees.
• We know there is damage to some beach accessways so please exercise caution.

Debris at Fergusson Park, Matua. Photo: Vaughn Burgess.

Roads blocked
Botanical Road
A tree has brought down a power line on Botanical Road at the intersection with 19th Avenue. The power to this area is off and it may be for some time while Powerco work to restore it. However, the tree has been cleared and the road is open.
Cameron Road
The westbound lane of Cameron Road between Arundel Street and 5th Avenue is closed due to a large tree blocking the road. The eastbound lane (towards the city centre) is open.
Waihi Road city bound between Churchill and Montgomery – tree blocking road.
Devonport Road between 9th and 10th Avenues - tree blocking road, detour in place.

Power outages
Powerco advises customers to:

• Regularly check Powerco's outage map for the latest information on current outages
• Report an outage either by contacting your retailer (the company you pay your power bill to), or using Powerco's report an outage page
• visit Powerco's power outage tips page for information on other measures to take during an outage.

In the event of an emergency, such as lines down, customers should:

• Treat lines as live at all times, and keep people and animals well clear
• Phone 0800 27 27 27 or 111 to report it.

Pāpāmoa kerbside rubbish collection
The Pāpāmoa kerbside rubbish collection will go ahead today.

"We are likely to feel the effects of this weather event for a few days to come. Once we've been able to assess the full impact of the cyclone in daylight, we'll send further updates,' says a council spokesperson.