Authorities in New Zealand have set up two temporary morgues, as the death toll from Cyclone Gabrielle, the country’s most damaging storm in decades, climbs to seven.
A second volunteer firefighter, Craig Stevens, died in hospital after being caught in a landslide near Auckland earlier in the week. A body was also found near Napier on Friday morning. Officials have warned that the toll is likely to rise further.
Severe storms have cut off entire towns, washed away farms, bridges and livestock, and inundated homes, stranding people on rooftops. Ten thousand people have been displaced and by Thursday afternoon, 3,455 people had been registered by police as “uncontactable”, though some were likely to be multiple reports for the same person, authorities said.
Temporary morgues have been set up in Napier and Hastings as part of “standard practice”, a police spokesperson told news outlet Stuff.
“The facilities have been established as a precaution to ensure that any fatalities can be managed with care and respect, and in accordance with coronial processes. They are held there before being taken to a mortuary,” police said.
Communication and access to a number of areas remained difficult, while surveillance flights were being undertaken to survey the damage and identify those who may be isolated. Convoys of trucks carrying essential items such as food, water, medicine and fuel were making their way into remote areas and the defence force is using ships to transport needed items into areas of the east coast.
Police walk up on foot to check houses and search for bodies in Napier, New Zealand. Photograph: Kerry Marshall/Getty Images
On Thursday, prime minister, Chris Hipkins, warned that there were some people for whom the police held “grave concerns”, but added, “We believe the majority of those considered uncontactable simply cannot make contact with loved ones, so police are prioritising those who are in isolated areas.”
Urban search and rescue team leader Ken Cooper said one man had walked 70km from Putorino to Napier to give rescue workers help with their missions.
“That’s a day-and-a-half walk,” he told Radio NZ. “He walked to give us a list of people still trapped up in the east coast.”
In Hawke’s Bay helicopters and boats were being used to check on people in isolated communities, while search and rescue teams continued to operate.
Rescue efforts were likely to be boosted by news from MetService that it no longer had any weather warnings in place in New Zealand and sunshine was forecast for most of the North Island.
Reuters contributed to this report
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( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )
At least five people have died and evacuations are continuing as fresh storm warnings are announced in regions of New Zealand already devastated by Cyclone Gabrielle and the prime minister warns of the likelihood of further fatalities.
As of 2.30pm on Thursday, 3,455 people had been registered by police as “uncontactable”, with some likely to be multiple reports for the same person.
“We believe the majority of those considered uncontactable simply cannot make contact with loved ones, so police are prioritising those who are in isolated areas,” said the prime minister, Chris Hipkins, warning that there were some people for whom the police held “grave concerns”.
After a visit to storm-hit Gisborne on Thursday, Hipkins described the damage as “extensive”, with basics like food and clean water still needed. He described the cyclone as an event on the scale of the Christchurch earthquake in 2011.
With the extent of damage still unfolding, New Zealand requested Australia’s help for disaster response on Thursday morning.
“I can confirm that NEMA [National Emergency Management Agency] has accepted an agency-to-agency offer for emergency response support and expertise,” Hipkins said.
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Speaking earlier in the day, the prime minister said New Zealand would be forced to re-evaluate and remake its infrastructure in response to extreme weather events. “There’s no question that as a country we need to look at the resilience of our infrastructure, and we need to do that with a much greater sense of urgency than we’ve ever seen before.”
As the emergency response continued, fresh storms were arriving, with severe thunderstorm alerts issued on Thursday morning for the worst-hit areas.
‘Total devastation’: New Zealand reels from Cyclone Gabrielle – video
National forecaster MetService issued a severe thunderstorm warning for Thursday afternoon for areas including the Bay of Plenty, Gisborne and the Hawke’s Bay region – three of the areas that have experienced some of the highest levels of flooding, damage and loss of life.
MetService said there were “very unstable conditions” including “heavy rain and hail”.
“Rainfall of this intensity can cause surface and/or flash flooding, especially about low-lying areas,” they said.
Fresh evacuation orders were issued on Thursday morning for residents of central Hawke’s Bay, with those around Drumpeel Road told to “leave immediately”.
Cyclone Gabrielle: helicopter pilot balances on roof in ‘daring’ New Zealand rescue – video
Communication to the worst-affected areas remained difficult, with authorities relying on the Starlink satellite communications service from Elon Musk’s Space X to provide internet in some areas.
As of Thursday afternoon, about 102,000 households were still without power across the North Island, down from about 225,000 on Tuesday morning.
As flood waters recede, they are revealing huge destruction: homes partly immersed in silt and mud, or shifted off their foundations. “It’s just unbelievable the devastation,” Eastern police district commander Supt Jeanette Park said on Thursday morning. “When you see it, it’s hard to comprehend.”
A damaged railway line in Awatoto, near Napier, Hawke’s Bay. Photograph: Kerry Marshall/Getty Images
On Thursday morning, Urban Search and Rescue said they were still rescuing people from their homes in Hawke’s Bay. In a radio interview, Napier-based Urban Search and Rescue specialist Ken Cooper said people had been climbing down from roofs to shelter in the upper parts of their properties.
“We’re finding people have moved to the roof voids of their properties, so we are still, at this moment, we are still rescuing people from their properties and there are a large number of people unaccounted for,” he said.
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( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )
In the New Zealand city of Napier, black army helicopters hum overhead. Leonard Fleming has damp clothes, no food and faces a third night sleeping in his car with his dogs Beadle and Mika. Fleming knows he has likely lost everything he left behind when he fled his home in nearby Eskdale, Hawke’s Bay, ahead of Cyclone Gabrielle on Monday.
“I’ve never had my house burned to the ground but I imagine it’s the same thing,” he tells the Guardian over a crackling phone line; service to the area is recently restored but coverage is intermittent. “All you can do is run away and I started thinking this morning about all the stuff that I’ve lost.”
This picture shows a coastal home after part of its back garden and sand was washed away during the storm surge caused by Cyclone Gabrielle in Waihi Beach in the Bay of Plenty. Photograph: Marty Melville/AFP/Getty Images
The ex-tropical cyclone which lashed New Zealand’s North Island on Monday and Tuesday – with high winds and heavy rain wreaking havoc in more than half a dozen regions – was the worst storm to hit New Zealand this century, said the prime minister, Chris Hipkins, whose government announced a rare national state of emergency on Tuesday.
Four deaths have been confirmed by the police, including a child whose body was found in Eskdale on Wednesday afternoon.
The trail of damage included fatal landslips, closed highways that cut off towns, flooding so severe and rapid that hundreds of people awaited rescue on their roofs, and widespread power, water and telecommunications outages. Some of the worst-affected areas were rural towns that were isolated even before the storm hit, with potholed roads and patchy cellphone reception.
Even as painstaking restoration of services continued on Wednesday, communication woes made it difficult to assess the scale of the devastation.
Fleming hoped those ferried back and forth in the army helicopters above him on Wednesday included his neighbours in Eskdale – a rural settlement 25km north of Napier. Some had stayed behind when he evacuated two days ago and now cannot be reached by phone.
The Esk River across the street from Fleming’s house breached its banks on Tuesday morning and he was told that water at surrounding properties reached roof level. Fleming cannot return home – or travel to the nearby city of Hastings to stay with his son – because bridges and state highways in the area are impassable due to flooding, slips and downed trees.
Army trucks and air force helicopters were sent to rescue hundreds of people in Hawke’s Bay on Tuesday as residents of cut-off settlements took to their roofs. Warnings were issued by civil defence officials on Sunday that residents of several areas should prepare to evacuate, but for many, the perilous speed of the rising water came as a shock.
Jenna Marsh from central Hawke’s Bay said the water rose metres in minutes at her parents’ house in Pakowhai – a town between Hastings and Napier. Her mother had told her everything was fine as she fed her horses on Tuesday morning.
Trees damaged by gale-force winds at a commercial pine forest in Tongariro. Photograph: Marty Melville/AFP/Getty Images
“Less than an hour later she texts me saying, ‘We’re on the roof,’” Marsh says. Her mother estimated the water level had risen by about three metres in 10 minutes.
Marsh’s parents spent eight hours on the roof before they were rescued by helicopter, carrying nothing but their two dogs.
“They had to pick between rescuing grab bags or their dogs and they picked their dogs,” Marsh says.
The family’s pet goat was left bobbing in a boat and they hope to find their horses, one of which was last seen swimming past the house.
The government says there are major animal welfare concerns for livestock and horses in rural areas lashed by the storm.
On Tuesday morning, a group of orchard workers – many of them apparently visiting seasonal workers from Tonga – made news headlines as they broadcast live on Facebook, some using mattresses as flotation devices and others sheltering on the roof of their accommodation. They were rescued on Tuesday afternoon by the army.
Tomas Lopez Castro and his host family in Napier on Wednesday
The communications blackout in Hawke’s Bay provoked panic for relatives living abroad. One family in Bogotá, Colombia, whose 15-year-old son arrived in New Zealand a fortnight ago for a six-month exchange program, were not able to reach him for two days.
Juan Sebastian Lopez says his younger brother, Tomas, is staying with a host family in Taradale, Napier, where evacuations were widespread. The family had felt reassured by New Zealand’s relative safety when they farewelled “our prince” on his first solo adventure abroad – and watched the news of rising flood waters in horror.
“We never imagined that this was even possible,” Lopez says.
Frantic with worry – and still unable to contact Tomas or his host family on Wednesday morning – the family filled in a police missing person form and waited. Lopez was overjoyed when Tomas and his host family were able to briefly confirm their safety on Wednesday afternoon, after traveling to a location with working wifi. More than 1,400 people have been registered with the police as uncontactable.
A view of flood damage in the the aftermath of Cyclone Gabrielle in Hawke’s Bay. Photograph: New Zealand defence force/Reuters
Further north in Coromandel, widespread power cuts left residents in slip-prone beach settlements unsure about what was happening outside their towns and worried about food supplies running out if the roads to the peninsula cannot be reopened quickly.
Claire Moyes, her husband and their visiting guests, spent two “terrifying” nights with “thunder, lightning and wind right on top of us”. Worried the stream beside their property would flood their home, the group dug trenches to funnel rising water away from their driveway.
“It came all the way up to the garage twice during high tide,” Moyes said, but their house was spared. Most of the houses nearby are holiday homes, and the couple spent Tuesday checking their neighbours’ properties.
By Wednesday, they had not showered in three days, and while power was briefly restored, it was not expected to last.
Residents in Taradale clean up silt on Wednesday from flood waters in Napier. Photograph: Kerry Marshall/Getty Images
Bigger problems loom: the coastal settlement is reliant on tourism, and Moyes said a mudslide at one of the peninsula’s best-known spots, Cathedral Cove – which is now closed – and erosion at popular Hahei beach would have lasting effects on the local economy.
“But at the moment, it’s just like, how can we get supplies? How can we feed ourselves for the next few days? How can we shower? How can we get out of here?” Moyes said.
In Napier, Leonard Fleming has dog food, coffee and a burner to brew it on – but no food and no access to his bank account to buy more due to power cuts. He does not want to seek refuge at an evacuation centre.
“When you’re in this situation, all you really want to do is just go home, relax, put your feet up and get a nice sleep in a cosy, warm bed but it’s all gone,” he said. “That’s really starting to sink in.”
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( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )
In the New Zealand city of Napier, black army helicopters hum overhead. Leonard Fleming has damp clothes, no food and faces a third night sleeping in his car with his dogs Beadle and Mika. Fleming knows he has likely lost everything he left behind when he fled his home in nearby Eskdale, Hawke’s Bay, ahead of Cyclone Gabrielle on Monday.
“I’ve never had my house burned to the ground but I imagine it’s the same thing,” he tells the Guardian over a crackling phone line; service to the area is recently restored but coverage is intermittent. “All you can do is run away and I started thinking this morning about all the stuff that I’ve lost.”
This picture shows a coastal home after part of its back garden and sand was washed away during the storm surge caused by Cyclone Gabrielle in Waihi Beach in the Bay of Plenty. Photograph: Marty Melville/AFP/Getty Images
The ex-tropical cyclone which lashed New Zealand’s North Island on Monday and Tuesday – with high winds and heavy rain wreaking havoc in more than half a dozen regions – was the worst storm to hit New Zealand this century, said the prime minister, Chris Hipkins, whose government announced a rare national state of emergency on Tuesday.
Four deaths have been confirmed by the police, including a child whose body was found in Eskdale on Wednesday afternoon.
The trail of damage included fatal landslips, closed highways that cut off towns, flooding so severe and rapid that hundreds of people awaited rescue on their roofs, and widespread power, water and telecommunications outages. Some of the worst-affected areas were rural towns that were isolated even before the storm hit, with potholed roads and patchy cellphone reception.
Even as painstaking restoration of services continued on Wednesday, communication woes made it difficult to assess the scale of the devastation.
Fleming hoped those ferried back and forth in the army helicopters above him on Wednesday included his neighbours in Eskdale – a rural settlement 25km north of Napier. Some had stayed behind when he evacuated two days ago and now cannot be reached by phone.
The Esk River across the street from Fleming’s house breached its banks on Tuesday morning and he was told that water at surrounding properties reached roof level. Fleming cannot return home – or travel to the nearby city of Hastings to stay with his son – because bridges and state highways in the area are impassable due to flooding, slips and downed trees.
Army trucks and air force helicopters were sent to rescue hundreds of people in Hawke’s Bay on Tuesday as residents of cut-off settlements took to their roofs. Warnings were issued by civil defence officials on Sunday that residents of several areas should prepare to evacuate, but for many, the perilous speed of the rising water came as a shock.
Jenna Marsh from central Hawke’s Bay said the water rose metres in minutes at her parents’ house in Pakowhai – a town between Hastings and Napier. Her mother had told her everything was fine as she fed her horses on Tuesday morning.
Trees damaged by gale-force winds at a commercial pine forest in Tongariro. Photograph: Marty Melville/AFP/Getty Images
“Less than an hour later she texts me saying, ‘We’re on the roof,’” Marsh says. Her mother estimated the water level had risen by about three metres in 10 minutes.
Marsh’s parents spent eight hours on the roof before they were rescued by helicopter, carrying nothing but their two dogs.
“They had to pick between rescuing grab bags or their dogs and they picked their dogs,” Marsh says.
The family’s pet goat was left bobbing in a boat and they hope to find their horses, one of which was last seen swimming past the house.
The government says there are major animal welfare concerns for livestock and horses in rural areas lashed by the storm.
On Tuesday morning, a group of orchard workers – many of them apparently visiting seasonal workers from Tonga – made news headlines as they broadcast live on Facebook, some using mattresses as flotation devices and others sheltering on the roof of their accommodation. They were rescued on Tuesday afternoon by the army.
Tomas Lopez Castro and his host family in Napier on Wednesday
The communications blackout in Hawke’s Bay provoked panic for relatives living abroad. One family in Bogotá, Colombia, whose 15-year-old son arrived in New Zealand a fortnight ago for a six-month exchange program, were not able to reach him for two days.
Juan Sebastian Lopez says his younger brother, Tomas, is staying with a host family in Taradale, Napier, where evacuations were widespread. The family had felt reassured by New Zealand’s relative safety when they farewelled “our prince” on his first solo adventure abroad – and watched the news of rising flood waters in horror.
“We never imagined that this was even possible,” Lopez says.
Frantic with worry – and still unable to contact Tomas or his host family on Wednesday morning – the family filled in a police missing person form and waited. Lopez was overjoyed when Tomas and his host family were able to briefly confirm their safety on Wednesday afternoon, after traveling to a location with working wifi. More than 1,400 people have been registered with the police as uncontactable.
A view of flood damage in the the aftermath of Cyclone Gabrielle in Hawke’s Bay. Photograph: New Zealand defence force/Reuters
Further north in Coromandel, widespread power cuts left residents in slip-prone beach settlements unsure about what was happening outside their towns and worried about food supplies running out if the roads to the peninsula cannot be reopened quickly.
Claire Moyes, her husband and their visiting guests, spent two “terrifying” nights with “thunder, lightning and wind right on top of us”. Worried the stream beside their property would flood their home, the group dug trenches to funnel rising water away from their driveway.
“It came all the way up to the garage twice during high tide,” Moyes said, but their house was spared. Most of the houses nearby are holiday homes, and the couple spent Tuesday checking their neighbours’ properties.
By Wednesday, they had not showered in three days, and while power was briefly restored, it was not expected to last.
Residents in Taradale clean up silt on Wednesday from flood waters in Napier. Photograph: Kerry Marshall/Getty Images
Bigger problems loom: the coastal settlement is reliant on tourism, and Moyes said a mudslide at one of the peninsula’s best-known spots, Cathedral Cove – which is now closed – and erosion at popular Hahei beach would have lasting effects on the local economy.
“But at the moment, it’s just like, how can we get supplies? How can we feed ourselves for the next few days? How can we shower? How can we get out of here?” Moyes said.
In Napier, Leonard Fleming has dog food, coffee and a burner to brew it on – but no food and no access to his bank account to buy more due to power cuts. He does not want to seek refuge at an evacuation centre.
“When you’re in this situation, all you really want to do is just go home, relax, put your feet up and get a nice sleep in a cosy, warm bed but it’s all gone,” he said. “That’s really starting to sink in.”
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( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )
Cyclone Gabrielle has caused devastation across New Zealand’s North Island. A national state of emergency has been declared, floods have trapped people on roofs and landslides have destroyed homes.
We would like to hear from you if you have been affected by the disaster, and are in a safe place to communicate. Please do not take any unnecessary risks in order to contact us. We would particularly like to hear from those who are in or in contact with those in the areas that appear worst-affected: Northland, Tolaga Bay, Gisborne/Tairāwhiti, west Auckland and Coromandel, but also those affected throughout the country.
How have you been affected personally, physically or mentally? Have you or your family suffered any damage to your property or livelihood? Do you live abroad but have loved ones in New Zealand who are affected? How do you feel about the response so far from the authorities?
If you have any images, you can use the form below to send them to us.
If you’re having trouble using the form, click here.
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( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )
Wellington: New Zealand declared a state of emergency on Monday as Cyclone Gabrielle started to lash the North Island.
People in several regions such as Northland and Auckland, the country’s largest city, have been warned of high risk of tidal flooding by the civil defense department. Thousands of people are cut off power in the North Island, Xinhua reported.
According to forecast, 400 millimeters of rain and wind gusts of 130 km/hour are expected over the next 20 hours.
The national carrier Air NZ cancelled all domestic flights in and out of Auckland on Sunday, and many international flights are also cancelled.
Most schools and childcare centres in the region have closed, and 26 emergency shelters and civil defense centers have been set up across Auckland, according to the civil defense department.
Auckland and many other places in the region were upgraded to red alert on Sunday as MetService, the national meteorological service of the country, warned that the worst weather is yet to come.
The government asked residents to prepare sandbags to buffer their homes, store food and water, and be ready for necessary evacuations in the coming days. Many sandbag stations are set up across Auckland overnight, and locals are encouraged to prepare their own sandbags for extreme situations.
New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins urged people to “take the severe weather warning seriously” and “stay at home, cancel all unnecessary travels.”
This is only two weeks after Auckland and the adjacent region Waikato were inundated by record downpours and floods.
Red Warnings are only issued for the most significant weather events, and this is the second time in the year 2023.
