Emergency status 

• Southland’s state of local emergency following the severe winds on Thursday 23 October will expire at 9.30am on Friday 7 November. 
• The immediate response phase will transition to recovery 

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. 
• With the nice weather over recent days there is potential for more people to want to visit Southland’s open spaces, parks and reserves. Check your local council’s Facebook page or website to find out if the area you want to visit is open before you go there. 

Trees & debris:  

• Councils are continuing to assess the scale of damage. 
• Southland District Council had six arborists assessing trees today, two of them on Stewart Island Rakiura. Estimated 15,000 tree sites to assess. So far 6405 have been deemed safe, with 125 needing some work and 20 deemed dangerous requiring immediate attention.  
• All parks and reserves in Winton are now officially open. 
• All other parks, reserves and cemeteries in Southland District are closed until they have been cleared as safe to enter. 
• 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. 

Food safety:  

Knowing what is safe to eat during the "clean-up" phase after an emergency can become a guessing game. Understand what may or may not be safe to eat. If in doubt, chuck it out.

• Check the food – does it smell or look different? Has the colour changed and does it have a slimy texture? If so, it's probably unsafe to eat. 
• If food is still visibly frozen (for example, it still has ice crystals on it), and packaging isn't damaged or open, you can still safely refreeze it. 
• You should not refreeze food that has defrosted. 
• You can still keep or use food that was frozen but has defrosted, you just need to keep it cold (like in the fridge). 
• Do not use any tinned food that has been damaged (for example, if the can has broken open, become deeply dented, or is heavily rusted). 

Find more information online: https://www.mpi.govt.nz/food-safety-home/food-safety-in-natural-disasters-and-emergencies 

Guy Fawkes safety 

• If you haven't already let off all your fireworks, please take the utmost care. If it's windy, please don't let them off.
• Southland is transitioning out of 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 recovery. 
• Check out the great tips 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 on 23 October. 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: 22 in Southland and 43 in South Otago remain without power. 
• PowerNet chief executive Paul Blue acknowledges the response from the public - “Our community has shown amazing grace and gratitude throughout a difficult time, and we’ve been overwhelmed by the generosity shown to our teams.” 
• 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.