Cyclone in New Zealand: 4 dead, 300 people rescued from rooftops

About 300 people who took refuge on roofs of houses were evacuated by the army in New Zealand after the passage of cyclone Gabrielle which killed four people and displaced 10,500 people, authorities said on Wednesday

Cyclone in New Zealand: 4 dead, 300 people rescued from rooftops

About 300 people who took refuge on roofs of houses were evacuated by the army in New Zealand after the passage of cyclone Gabrielle which killed four people and displaced 10,500 people, authorities said on Wednesday.

The body of a fourth victim, a child believed to be "caught by rising waters", has been found in the rural village of Eksdale on the country's east coast, police say.

Three other people had previously been found dead in areas affected by the cyclone: ​​one at the location where a firefighter was reported missing when a house collapsed during the stormy weather in West Auckland and two others in the area of Hawke's Bay, North Island, said Emergency Management Minister Kieran McAnulty.

The New Zealand Army has deployed three NH90 helicopters to the hard-hit Hawke's Bay area. There they rescued workers, families or pets perched on sodden roofs to escape the rising waters.

"In some cases, the flood waters reached the second floor of the houses" where rescue operations were underway, detailed a military spokesman.

At an evacuation center in the northern town of Whangarei, Margaret, 66, recounts how she fled as floodwaters engulfed her home, knocking out the electricity in the process.

Her daughter, who lives 600 miles away in Napier on the east coast, was also forced from her home when a landslide hit the area.

"She had called me earlier, to check that I was okay, and now it happened to her; it's incredible, really," she told AFP.

"She's young, so it's a big setback for her and her husband. Me, I'm going to get through this, I have people here I can stay with and things will eventually work out," wants she believe.

McAnulty praised the "phenomenal" work of rescuers and the army who evacuated "nearly 300 people" from rooftops in the hard-to-reach Hawke's Bay area.

A group of 60 people were rescued from a large flooded building.

"There have been four confirmed deaths and the grief must be unimaginable," New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said at a press conference.

Violent winds and torrential rains affected the North Island overnight from Monday to Tuesday, where more than three quarters of the country's five million inhabitants live, causing floods and landslides.

The authorities are beginning to measure the extent of the damage in isolated towns where floodwaters have washed away roads and cut communications.

Some 10,500 people have been displaced, the emergency management minister said, and 160,000 are without power, although power is gradually being restored.

The police have also received more than 1,400 reports of people being "unreachable" due to the interruption of the mobile phone network.

The region, with once bucolic landscapes, is unrecognizable, between impetuous torrents, destroyed roads and major landslides.

The cyclone has since weakened as it continues its course towards the South Pacific after raising waves of 11 meters and blowing winds of up to 140 km / h.

Chris Hipkins called Gabrielle "New Zealand's most significant weather event this century" and a national state of emergency was declared for a week.

"This is a significant disaster," McAnulty said, stressing that it will take "many weeks" for affected areas to recover. "The road is long," he concluded.

Cyclone Gabrielle formed on February 8 off the northeast coast of Australia in the Coral Sea before crossing the South Pacific.

According to scientists, it fed on exceptionally warm seas, under the combined effect of climate change and the La Nina phenomenon, a meteorological anomaly.

burs-arb/nzg/tmt/prh

02/15/2023 09:11:31 -         Auckland (AFP) -         © 2023 AFP