About 46,000 homes are without power as Hurricane Gabrielle batters northern New Zealand.
Authorities have issued warnings of heavy rain and strong winds, and hundreds of flights have been cancelled.
Some areas have declared a state of emergency, as Gabrielle approaches the North Island.
It comes weeks after Auckland and surrounding areas were hit by record rainfall that triggered flooding and killed four people.
New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hopkins, who announced the NZ$11.5m (£6m; US$7.3m) aid package, said the “extreme weather event has been caused by extreme weather.”
“Things are likely to get worse before they get better.”
Emergency Management Minister Karen McAnulty told a media briefing on Monday that the government was considering declaring a state of national emergency for only the third time in the country’s history.
A state of emergency has already been declared in five northern regions, including Auckland. The declaration gives local authorities more power to respond to dangerous situations and allows them to ban travel and provide aid.
New Zealand’s weather agency, Metservice, said Whangarei, north of Auckland, had received 100.5mm (4in) of rain in the past 12 hours.
Mr McAnulty added that Monday would be a “critical day” due to a “very dangerous” combination of strong winds and heavy rain. Winds of up to 140 km/h (87 mph) hit the Northland region, while the Auckland Harbor Bridge was rocked by gusts of up to 110 km/h.
He warned it could take days to restore the power grid as bad weather made it “unsafe” to work on the network.
Weather officials had previously downgraded Gabrielle, but the Metservice said in its latest update on Monday that it would still bring “significant heavy rain and potentially damaging winds”.
Although the storm has yet to make landfall, it has already uprooted trees, damaged roads and downed power lines.
Many schools and local government facilities in Auckland and the North Island are closed and people are being told not to travel if possible.
Around 10,000 international Air New Zealand customers were affected by the cancellation of 509 flights during that time.
With normal services expected to resume on Tuesday, the national carrier will add 11 additional domestic flights to its schedule to aid recovery efforts.
The storm is the second major weather event to hit Auckland and the North Island in just a few weeks.
Officials said the two major incidents have strained emergency and recovery response systems.
