Less than four weeks since the devastating New Year's storm ravaged much of the North Island, one of the hardest-hit areas is bracing for a second blow.
The Coromandel Peninsula is on alert with a pairing of high winds and king tides set to roll in with the remnants of Tropical Cyclone Fehi.
It's expected to hit New Zealand on Thursday and early Friday.
The cyclone is currently northwest of the country.
Despite Fehi weakening somewhat, MetService meteorologist Tom Adams said it is still a threat because "when it comes near New Zealand it will intensify greatly".
"It still won't be a cyclone again but it will be a powerful storm regardless," Mr Adams said.
Towns around the Firth of Thames, still recovering from a battering earlier this month, now need to prepare for another one.
"We were warned some time ago that we might be here again," Thames-Coromandel District Council Civil Defence Controller Garry Towler said.
Mr Towler says his team is preparing for a "short, sharp sting" to the Coromandel Peninsula.
"The west coast of the Firth of Thames will likely bear the brunt of it," he said.
The combination of king tides and wind on Thursday evening at 8.50pm and Friday morning at 9.15am are of particular concern.
"Alongside the king tides, which are quite big, not as big as the last ones but still quite big, are some nasty winds. We're talking 60, 80, to maybe 90 kilometres an hour."
The district council has distributed 12,000 sandbags to vulnerable coastal communities like Kaiaua, which was swallowed by flooding on January 5.
"It will be a bit uncomfortable, let's just get prepared," Mr Towler said.
Towns on the east coast of the Coromandel Peninsula aren't expected to be hit hard, other than some "really good swells".
Although it's not expected to be worse than last time, the message is to have a plan.
"These events are not going away, that's going to be the new norm."
In Ngatea, the Waikato Regional Council has almost finished raising stop banks along the Piako River, after floodwaters threatened to top them during the January storm.
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