Otago emergency response staff are on their way to the North Island to help with the response following this week's devastating cyclone, and more are likely to follow.
A national state of emergency has been declared after Cyclone Gabrielle brought severe flooding, rain and winds to Northland, Auckland, Tairāwhiti, Bay of Plenty, Waikato and Hawke’s Bay.
Almost 250,000 people lost power yesterday and entire communities were cut off as Gabrielle wrought devastation, forcing thousands of evacuations from some of the hardest-hit regions.
At least 9000 families have been displaced from their homes and 3000 people have sought refuge at Civil Defence centres. Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has described it as the worst weather event of the century.
Emergency Management Otago (Te Rākau Whakamarumaru Ōtākou) stakeholder engagement adviser Erica Andrews said two of its team members were being sent today - one to Northland and the other to Auckland.
Other team members were waiting for details, Ms Andrews said.
Each deployment was for a maximum of a week.
‘‘We anticipate further requests for support over the coming weeks and potentially months, as the scale of the impact becomes clearer,’’ Ms Andrews said.
In response to the Auckland flood event a few weeks ago, Emergency Management Otago had sent six staff members to support that response. They worked out of the Auckland Emergency Operations Centre in public information, management, intelligence and operations roles.
A Dunedin City Council spokesman said there were staff on standby if required.
A police spokesman said additional staff were being sent to storm-affected regions from elsewhere in New Zealand to meet demand, including staff with search and rescue training.
‘‘For operational reasons we're unable to provide details of specific staff deployment/re-deployment numbers and where they're deployed from," he said.
