States of emergency declared as Cyclone Cook bears down on New Zealand

[canetoad]

Source: The Age

Ex-tropical cyclone Cook is bearing down on New Zealand and is set to be the worst storm system in nearly 50 years.

Heavy rain and high winds forecast for a big swath of the country were set to cause big disruption on the last day before the Easter break, with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) warning it may have to close the Auckland harbour bridge if wind speeds get high on Thursday afternoon.

Air travellers looked certain to be affected too with Air New Zealand advising customers to anticipate delays and cancellations across its network.

Both Bay of Plenty and Coromandel have declared states of emergency, ahead of Cook's arrival.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/world/states-of-emergency-declared-as-cyclone-cook-bears-down-on-new-zealand-20170412-gvk1qw.html

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Additional info:
Live: Cyclone Cook - MetService says worst storm in generations bearing down

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11837255

KEY POINTS

Cook is being regarded as the worst storm New Zealand has seen in generations
The storm is now expected to make landfall around 6pm
Residents of low-lying Coromandel east coast told to evacuate immediately
137 schools and 133 early learning centres have been closed across the North Island
Thames, Coromandel and Bay of Plenty are under states of emergency
People are on high alert in Bay of Plenty and may need to evacuate with little notice
The eastern coastline is expected to come in for a hammering from huge waves and fears of inundation and erosion
Helicopters and emergency welfare teams are on standby
People are being urged to delay their Easter holiday plans

[lordsummerisle]

1. Yikes! n/t

[wysi]

2. and yet...

I'm going to go out and drive five hours through that crap tomorrow.

[canetoad]

4. Take it easy

And look after yourself. Best of luck.

[wysi]

8. Will do!

[rickford66]

3. On the phone to my SIL right now.

She doesn't think it's too bad. She's in the North Island. Of course she doesn't get out of bed for earthquakes.

[jpak]

5. I've driven through "Southers" (sic?) on the South Island that were pretty bad

Turned over tractor trailers - blew my rental car almost off the road.

The locals shrugged it off.

[rickford66]

6. Besides the earthquakes, CH CH had long lasting brush fires.

Came very close to other relatives and friends homes. Then the torrential rains came close to flooding my nephews home. The only thing left would be a volcano.

[jpak]

7. The Big Shake in CHCH really shook me

So sad - sincerely.

[meadowlander]

11. Southerlies ;-)

[keithbvadu2]

9. Cyclone Cook? - Ironic considering Capt Cook sailed the Pacific.

Cyclone Cook? - Ironic considering Capt Cook sailed the Pacific.

Don't remember if he landed on NZ.

[Ligyron]

14. Exactly what I was thinking!

Yeah, he did the coast, Captain Cook did.

[canetoad]

10. Yeah, he circumnavigated NZ

This cyclone was born in the Coral Sea, fairly close to Australia a week or so ago.

[meadowlander]

12. And we just had Cyclone Debbie last week.

It's a shame about the long weekend as the weather was crap at Christmas as well and it's been raining non-stop since February.

[Hortensis]

13. Hope all our North Islanders do okay and the

worst of it is only blasted holiday plans. As Californians, we know what already-saturated ground can mean as new storms come in, though not so much typhoons on top of everything. Enjoy sheltering.

[Ligyron]

15. There are a lot of tree ferns in NZ.

I had a tree fern here in Florida as I just love the things. My favorite plant. The look: just so Jurassic and I've seen pictures of NZ with tree ferns framing snow capped mountains in the background. Really, really cool.

Anyway, we had just a tropical storm hit and it destroyed my poor tree fern. Apparently they've not evolved to survive the high winds associated with hurricanes and tropical storm conditions like palm trees have.

Admittedly, it was an Australian tree fern though...

[canetoad]

16. Sad about the storm

You're right, they are not terribly hardy plants. I have five or six youngish tree-ferns in the back yard, grown from cuttings from a friend's big old tree fern.

I'm not sure of the biological process, but at some stage the mature plants form new little sucker-like things at the end of their fronds, much like a spider plant. I gathered some of those and planted them and two years later they are doing well.

[Ligyron]

17. They don't like wind and need lots of water.

The wind can make them look terrible, break fronds, rag out the leaves, etc. A lot ferns are understory plants so maybe they they get protection.

That's cool about the plantlets growing on the fronds. I know they form spores on their leaves and I watched a video one time on how to capture them and grow them out in peat moss. Sterile was a word used a lot.

Some species will sucker out from the base or the trunk, especially if it's top is lost or cut off.

Beautiful plant but delicate is my impression