With the storm now fading into the South Pacific, rescue teams have finally reached regions cut off by days of torrential rain and gale‑force winds. The New Zealand military deployed three NH90 helicopters for reconnaissance and rescue flights to the hard‑hit Hawke’s Bay area, where families, pets and coworkers were clustered on sodden zinc rooftops surrounded by a sea of murky, debris‑filled floodwater. “In some cases, flood waters were up to the second storey of homes where people were being rescued,” a military spokesperson said.
The disaster has severed roads, collapsed houses and cut power across a swathe of New Zealand’s North Island, home to more than three‑quarters of the country’s five million residents. The human toll continues to grow. Emergency Management Minister Kieran McAnulty announced on Wednesday that three bodies had been recovered from storm‑hit areas, including a woman killed when her house was crushed by a landslip in Hawke’s Bay and a victim believed to be a volunteer firefighter trapped by a collapsing home. About 10,500 people have been displaced and 140,000 remain without power. McAnulty praised the “phenomenal” effort of rescue workers and military personnel who plucked roughly 300 people from rooftops in Hawke’s Bay—a sprawling region of lush farmland, rugged mountains and hard‑to‑reach towns. He noted that a group of 60 people was rescued from one large building marooned by floodwaters.
Aerial images show a once bucolic landscape riven with torrents of floodwater, crumbling roads and massive landslides. “There are still gaps in our knowledge. Some areas haven’t had communications for a couple of days and we know there’s a shortage of food and water,” McAnulty told radio station Newstalk ZB. The recovery will be a months‑long effort to repair damaged roads, homes and bridges. Authorities announced a national state of emergency on Tuesday, only the third such declaration in the country’s history after the 2019 Christchurch attacks and the Covid‑19 pandemic. “This is a significant disaster which is going to take many weeks for those areas affected to recover,” McAnulty said. “We are in this for the long haul.”
Cyclone Gabrielle formed off the northeastern coast of Australia in the Coral Sea on 8 February before barreling across the South Pacific. It struck New Zealand’s northern coast on Sunday, bringing gusts of 140 km/h (87 mph). Over the next 24 hours, coastal communities were doused with 20 cm (almost eight inches) of rain and pounded by 11‑metre (36‑foot) waves. Much of northern New Zealand was already waterlogged, having been drenched by record rainfall two weeks earlier; Auckland Airport received almost half its annual average rainfall in the past 45 days, according to the national MetService. Scientists say Gabrielle fed off unusually warm seas, driven by a combination of climate change and La Niña weather patterns. The storm is now hundreds of kilometres east of New Zealand, with wind speeds dropping rapidly.
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