Police have expressed “grave worries” for those still missing after the cyclone sparked New Zealand’s third national state of emergency.
Cyclone Gabrielle’s flooding and landslides in New Zealand killed four people, including a toddler.
Several persons are still missing in the Hawke’s Bay and Tairawhiti regions of the North Island, according to the police.
The hurricane blasted the north of the country on Monday, causing more damage to the five million-person nation than any other meteorological event in decades.
A Hawke’s Bay child drowned in the storm.
According to Emergency Management Minister Kieran McAnulty, a volunteer firefighter’s body was recovered from a landslide that wrecked a flooded home near Auckland.
He stated that a woman was also killed by a landslide in the Hawke’s Bay region.
Tuesday night, a body was discovered on the beach at Bay View, Napier.
Police indicate that 1,442 people have been reported as “uncontactable” using an online form following the hurricane. However, this number includes “multiple reports of the same person identified as uncontactable by different people.”
Police in Hawke’s Bay and Tairawhiti have “grave concerns” about many missing people. “While we anticipate that a large number of the reports are the result of downed communication lines. We can confirm that there are several missing people for whom we have grave concerns,” police said.
On Wednesday, helicopters will assist in 25 individual and family rescues.
Tuesday was only the third time that New Zealand has ever declared a national state of emergency. Allowing the government to support impacted regions and offer additional resources.
Auckland, the largest city in New Zealand, and the regions of Northland, Tairawhiti, Bay of Plenty, Waikato, and Hawke’s Bay are included in the warning.
The North Island’s worst-hit areas were evacuated and supplied by the military.
Some portions of the region are inaccessible owing to road damage.
Authorities said that a meteorological station in the Hawke’s Bay and Napier region recorded three times the average amount of precipitation for the entire month of February on Monday night.
Mr. McAnulty stated that more than 300 individuals were evacuated from the flooded bay region on the east side of the North Island on Tuesday, including 60 people stranded on a single roof.
“In several locations, our emergency services are currently doing rescues and searches,” he told reporters.
Approximately 9,000 people have been displaced from their homes since Monday. And some settlements have been cut off by rivers and landslides, he reported.
Mr. McAnulty stated, “Everyone is aware that we have a long road ahead of us as we deal with substantial damage to homes, businesses, roads, bridges, and other key elements of our infrastructure.”
It will take many weeks for the most affected areas to recover from this enormous calamity.
Two weeks after a huge storm caused floods and four deaths, the hurricane hit the city.
Following the cyclone, Air New Zealand canceled 500 flights, including domestic routes to and from Auckland.
