A year after winds of 164km/h tore through Southland and Clutha, farms across the region are still chipping wood piles, repairing fences and, above all, buying generators.
The storm of October 2025 brought down thousands of trees and kilometres of power lines, cut electricity to almost 50,000 people and forced some dairy farmers to dump milk when their sheds lost power. Emergency Management Southland declared a state of emergency and arranged 34 generators for farms and businesses, with the air force flying in more.
Twelve months on, Federated Farmers Southland dairy vice-chair Kass Rauber says the bulk of the clean-up has been done. The first priority was shifting trees that were blocking fence repairs so stock could be contained. The lasting lesson, Rauber says, is that farmers need backstops built into their farm systems.
That lesson has been expensive for some. Doug Bickley, who runs six farms around Southland, said several of his houses lost power and staff shared generators on a day-on, day-off basis. He now owns three generators. His cow sheds, hay barns and calf sheds were damaged and have since been repaired, but he believes extreme conditions may become the norm, and said this winter's wet and cold was the worst he had seen.
The director of Cow Power Generators said sales had risen well above pre-storm levels, with generators increasingly installed for houses rather than only for milking sheds. The extended outages, in the director's view, had been a wake-up call for farmers.
Forestry and wood piles
City Forests estimates it lost about 500 hectares of trees across its 25,000-hectare Otago-Southland estate. Chief executive Grant Dodson said harvesting had focused on salvaging windthrown trees before they rotted, a difficult job because the damaged sites are scattered, and the company was pushing replanting hard. Domestic mills have taken the salvaged wood.
"You can only build so much resilience into the system. If that gets exceeded, then you have a problem," he said.
On farms, the hedges that fell took fences and power lines with them, and much of the timber is still stacked. Paul Balneaves, former general manager of Otautau firm DT Kings, said wood was piled up through the year because supply far exceeded demand for chipping. The company plans to resume chipping, mainly for animal bedding, once farmers have housing ready, to avoid handling the material twice.
Rules and relief funding
PowerNet chief executive Paul Blue said the lines industry had pushed for stronger rules on trees near power lines. Some improved vegetation rules take effect from this October, with more due in 2027. The network company has held a post-event debrief, refined its incident response and built closer relationships with other agencies.
The Southland Mayoral Relief Fund, set up after the storm, has closed to new hardship applications from individuals and businesses and is redirecting what remains to community preparedness. Community groups, iwi organisations and not-for-profits in the Invercargill, Southland and Gore districts can apply until 6 November for grants of typically $500 to $5000 for one-off projects such as generator connections and water storage for community hubs, first aid training and local communication systems.
Southland District Mayor Rob Scott, who chairs the Mayoral Relief Forum, said the anniversary was a chance for communities to reflect on what they had learned and invest in being ready next time.
"Local communities know where their strengths and vulnerabilities are," he said.
