Emergency status 

• Southland remains under a state of local emergency following the severe winds on Thursday 23 October. 
• Southland Mayor Rob Scott extended the declaration on the advice of Emergency Management Southland, ensuring continued powers to coordinate response efforts. 
• At this stage, the state of emergency is in place until Friday 7 November. 

Today’s focus 

• Parks & safety: Most parks, reserves, cemeteries and playgrounds in Invercargill, Bluff, and the Southland District remain closed. These areas are closed for a reason – they are dangerous and by entering you put yourself and potentially our emergency responders at risk if you need their assistance. Do not collect firewood or enter storm-affected sites. Wood from fallen trees in parks will be made available when it is safe to do so. 
• Trees & debris: Councils are continuing to assess the scale of damage and managing waste, especially green waste. There is ongoing concern for people cleaning up their properties and ensuring they do this safely and without injury. In rural Southland, creating a green waste pile with fallen branches and trees is a good option. At this stage they’ll be too wet to burn. 

Welfare support 

• Remember to check on whānau, friends, and neighbours — especially those needing extra help. This is very important as fatigue starts to set in. 
• Community hubs across Southland remain open for power, Wi-Fi, and showers. 
• Southland Rural Support Trust have been taking calls from farmers and growers impacted by the weather events last week and this service is available by calling 0800 787 254 for a confidential chat. 

Welfare support: 0800 890 127 (available 9am–3pm) | [email protected]

Mental health support (24/7): Call or text 1737 | 1737.org.nz 

Power 

• Outages: 260 in Southland and 421 in South Otago remain without power. 
• If you have previously submitted a form on the PowerNet website BEFORE power was restored to your general area, and your neighbours have power on but you don’t, please fill out another form or call PowerNet on 0800 808 587. 
• There will be additional outages throughout the networks while they identify what needs to happen to reconnect outstanding outages. If your power goes off again and doesn’t come back on after four hours, give PowerNet a call on 0800 808 587. 
• If there is obvious damage to the service line within your boundary, please contact an electrician to look at this for you. It may not resolve your power issues but it will ensure your property is ready to be reconnected when they get there to fix any other problems. 

Community BBQs 

• More community BBQs are being planned - hosted by Rural Support Trust, Emergency Management Southland, DairyNZ & others. Keep an eye on Southland Rural Support Trust on Facebook.