Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown is urging residents recently struck by devastating flooding to "please get prepared" as Tropical Cyclone Gabrielle poses another threat.
At a press conference on Thursday afternoon, Brown said Cyclone Gabrielle's path to Aotearoa is "uncertain" but "looks like we're going to be involved".
"Hopefully there'll be better news tomorrow about the Cyclone, but we can't take that bet yet," Brown told media.
It's been 13 days since Auckland was first hit by the fierce flooding and Brown said that "at this time public resources are stretched".
Mayor Brown encouraged Aucklanders to help prepare, in case Cyclone Gabrielle delivers the harsh blow forecasters are predicting.
"So please help by clearing out and checking any nearby drains that we haven't got to yet," Brown said.
"Please get prepared Aucklanders."
And as residents stare down the barrel of another potential natural disaster, Brown said he and authorities are "doing our absolute best to prepare for this".
The mayor promised he and authorities will "do much better at keeping you informed all the way along".
"This time we have the advantage of knowing it's coming."
"This time we've had the opportunity to double-check everything," he said.
"We've learned to take it dead seriously, we took the last one dead seriously but things turned out not to have been done to what anyone hoped."
"We're preparing for the worse and hoping for the best"
The mayor said much of Auckland's ground is waterlogged, posing a heightened potential of power outages, as trees and power poles weren't hit by strong winds 13 days ago.
"One of the things you should be doing is making sure you've got torches with batteries."
MetService predicts Cyclone Gabrielle will bring severe weather to Aotearoa from Sunday onwards.
"Damaging winds, flooding rain, & coastal inundation are things to watch out for from Sunday onwards," MetService tweeted.
Find out more on how to get prepared here.
