LAST UPDATE | 15 Feb 2023

A FIFTH PERSON has died in New Zealand in the aftermath of Cyclone Gabrielle, police have said, amid fears the death toll could climb further.

More heavy rain was forecast for the badly-hit eastern areas of the country, where the disaster has severed roads, collapsed houses, cut power and displaced over 10,000 people.

National police said in a statement that a person is “believed to have died after being caught in flood water” in the Gisborne region, bringing the death toll in the Hawke’s Bay area on the east coast to four.

Earlier, a firefighter was reported dead when a house collapsed west of Auckland in the north.

New Zealand is under a national state of emergency after Cyclone Gabrielle bore down on its northern coast on Sunday and several people are still missing in areas saturated by floodwaters.

The cyclone has faded into the Pacific, but New Zealand’s MetService warned of further downpours Thursday of up to 40 millimetres per hour in eastern areas already flooded.

The New Zealand military has deployed three NH90 helicopters on reconnaissance and rescue flights to the hard-hit Hawke’s Bay area, finding families, pets and workmates clustered on sodden zinc rooftops surrounded by debris-filled floodwater.

A military spokesperson said that “in some cases, flood waters were up to the second storey of homes where people were being rescued”.

The disaster has severed roads, collapsed houses and cut power across a swathe of New Zealand’s North Island, which is home to more than three-quarters of the country’s five million residents.

Police said the body of a child was found in Eksdale on the remote east coast after the child was “believed to have been caught in rising flood water”.

Emergency Management Minister Kieran McAnulty reported three other bodies had been recovered from storm-hit areas.

They included a woman who was 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 are still without power, according to McAnulty.

He hailed the “phenomenal” effort of rescue workers and military personnel who plucked “roughly 300 people from rooftops” in Hawke’s Bay.

He said a group of 60 people were rescued from one large building marooned by floodwaters.

“There’s 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.

New Zealand faces a months-long effort to fix damaged roads, homes, and bridges.

Authorities announced a national state of emergency yesterday for only the third time 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,” said McAnulty. “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 barrelling across the South Pacific.

Many parts of northern New Zealand were already waterlogged when Cyclone Gabrielle hit, having been drenched by record rainfall two weeks ago.

Auckland Airport received almost half its annual average rainfall in the past 45 days, according to the national MetService.

Scientists say Cyclone Gabrielle had fed off unusually warm seas, driven by a combination of climate change and La Nina weather patterns.

© AFP 2023