A severe storm continued to lash the top half of New Zealand's North Island on Saturday, with strong wind warnings in place for most areas of the North Island. The storm toppled power lines and trees, closed roads and caused extensive power outages, Radio New Zealand reported on Saturday.

MetService predicted the storm, which began on Saturday morning, will last about 24 hours. The storm hit Coromandel and the Bay of Plenty on Saturday evening and was expected to be felt in East Cape by late Sunday morning.

Civil Defense centers in the North Island warned people to be prepared for flooding and power outages. Its advice for how to cope with storm conditions is listed below.

In New Zealand's largest city of Auckland, 50,000 customers were without power in the city's Waitakere, Rodney and North Shore areas on Saturday night after high winds caused a number of faults to power cables.

Lines company Vector said about 7,000 customers were without power on its Auckland network.

Far North power company Top Energy says 14,000 homes experienced some form of power outage on Saturday. A spokesperson said that 400 homes would be without power until Sunday.

In Northland, 5,000 households in the Whangarei and Dargaville districts were without power on Saturday night.

The Bay of Islands Hospital was being powered by a generator, as Top Energy responded to power outages throughout the Hokianga and Bay of Islands. It reported widespread outages across the Far North, including Kaitaia, Opononi, Taupo Bay and Coopers Beach.