Coastal areas evacuated as Cyclone Pam batters New Zealand

Remote communities on the east coast of New Zealand's North Island were evacuated Monday as Tropical Cyclone Pam brought gales, torrential rains and huge waves to coastal areas.

The storm had passed through the north of the North Island and the biggest city of Auckland with little impact, but it had been reclassified as "an intense tropical cyclone" early on Monday, said a statement from the government's MetService weather bureau.

The center of the storm was 230 km east of East Cape and it still had the power to bring severe weather.

More than 150 mm of rain had fallen in the worst-hit Gisborne district in the 24 hours to 2 p.m. Monday, with one area recording more than 200 mm, and wind gusts were reaching up to 145 km per hour.

"Cyclone Pam is moving southeast and is expected to maintain its intensity, or may even intensify slightly, reaching the Chatham Islands around midday Tuesday. A warning is now in place for severe gales, heavy rain and heavy swells for the Chathams," it said.

Schools in the Gisborne district were closed Monday and power was out in many areas.

More than 40 people had been evacuated as a precaution against inundation by the sea, flooding and slips, Gisborne Civil Defence Emergency Management controller Peter Higgs said in a statement.

Waves of up to nine meters were expected in parts of the region because of the high winds and swells, but these were expected to reduce to about three to four meters by midday Tuesday.

Civil Defence staff were considering further evacuations from low-lying areas.

"We have reports coming in of horizontal rain and a fierce sea rising rapidly," said Higgs.

Police Gisborne area commander Sam Aberahama said in a statement that police had reports of waves of five to six meters in one area and residents had "never seen anything like it before. "