• Cyclone Gabrielle is expected to make landfall on New Zealand’s North Island.
• Bringing with it powerful gusts and additional heavy rain.
• Residents are being advised to make sure they have enough supplies.

New Zealand is making preparations for a major storm that might impact areas of the country that have already suffered from devastating flooding.

From Saturday night, Cyclone Gabrielle is anticipated to make landfall on the nation’s North Island, possibly bringing with it powerful gusts and additional heavy rain.

In case they become stranded at home, residents have been advised to make sure they have enough supplies to last three days.

The storm occurs a few weeks after Auckland was swamped by excessive rain.

There, tens of thousands of sandbags have been supplied due to worries that the weaker infrastructure and soggy ground have made residences more susceptible to floods.

Ahead of the cyclone’s arrival, evacuation shelters have been set up once more, and Air New Zealand, the national airline, has cancelled a number of domestic flights.

As people got ready for further severe weather, images and videos shared on social media revealed huge lines at stores and empty shelves.

The most northern part of New Zealand, Northland, is already experiencing severe winds, according to local media.

As a result of Cyclone Gabrielle’s downgrading from a category three storm to a category two storm, less severe winds are now anticipated.

Forecasters have cautioned that they might still be powerful enough to harm trees and electricity lines, and that there still be enough rain in the air to trigger further flooding and landslides in the days to come.

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The most severe weather alert has been issued for the Coromandel Peninsula and the Tairwhiti/Gisborne area, both of which were impacted by the recent intense rain.

People who live in flood-prone areas have been warned to get ready to leave.

“There’s a degree of nervousness and anxiety around this coming event,” the Thames-Coromandel district’s mayor, Len Salt, told the Stuff news website.

“Coromandel people are pretty resilient, but the fact we’ve been in this mode dealing with storm events from the beginning of January…people are tired.”

The Australian Bureau of Meteorology has reported that Cyclone Gabrielle’s effects are causing circumstances on Norfolk Island, a remote region, to start to worsen.

A red alert has also been issued for the island, which is located north of New Zealand.

Residents have been advised to stay inside and seek cover under the strongest portion of their homes.

“It’s getting hectic,” resident Alex McGillycuddy told media, adding that the wind has become so strong it was hard to stand up outside.

“Some of the people here, they haven’t seen anything like this and they’ve been here 25 years,” he said.

In the past 30 to 40 years, only three cyclones have passed within 50 km (31 miles) of the island.

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