Emergency status 

• Southland remains under a state of local emergency following the severe winds on Thursday 23 October. 
• At this stage, the state of emergency will terminate on Friday 7 November unless extended. 

Today’s focus 

Safety of our communities continues to be our biggest concern. 

Parks & safety:  

• Many parks, reserves, cemeteries and playgrounds in Invercargill, Bluff, and the Southland District remain closed. Parks and playgrounds in Gore are open. 
• Closed 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. 
• Southland District Council had six arborists assessing trees today. Estimated 15,000 tree sites to assess. So far over 5000 have been deemed safe, with around 129 needing some work and 16 deemed dangerous requiring immediate attention.  
• The arboretum in Otautau remains closed.  
• All parks and reserves in Winton are now officially open. 
• Invercargill City Council estimates over 1000 trees potentially damaged and clean-up still needed on a number of parks and reserves. The council is preparing for a free green waste and scrap metal drop-off as soon as it can set it up safely. 

Guy Fawkes safety 

• Take care with fireworks this Guy Fawkes. 
• All of Southland is still in a state of emergency following the recent severe wind event. The last thing we need is a spate of fires causing more devastation and drawing emergency staff and volunteers away from the storm response. 
• Check out the great tips for a safe and fun Guy Fawkes on the Fire & Emergency Facebook page. 

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 has 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  

Power 

• Outages: 48 in Southland and 67 in South Otago remain without power. 
• PowerNet chief executive Paul Blue acknowledged the response from the public - “Your patience and your kindness to our crews has been nothing short of outstanding.” 
• 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 

• A community BBQ is being hosted at Woodend on Friday 7 November by Rural Support Trust, Emergency Management Southland, DairyNZ & others. Keep an eye on Southland Rural Support Trust on Facebook.