KEY POINTS
- Residents in Gisborne can use water again following a fix to the treatment works, but they should still try to conserve it.
- A national state of emergency has been declared. It is only the third in New Zealand's history.
- Auckland, Northland, Tairāwhiti, Bay of Plenty, Ōpōtiki, Whakatāne, Waikato, Thames-Coromandel, Hauraki, Tararua, and Napier and Hastings had already declared local states of emergency.
- Nine people have been confirmed killed in the storm, including a child and two firefighters.
- Hundreds are still without water or power in Gisborne.
- Additional police officers will be arriving in Hawke's Bay and Tairāwhiti to help with recovery efforts and the navy's HMNZS Canterbury is on route to Hawke's Bay to help with aid.
- Many rivers remain flooded with water levels dangerously high and police say people should stay away and not put themselves at risk.
- More than 4900 people have been registered as uncontactable.
- Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has warned the rebuild from Cyclone Gabrielle will be enormous and lengthy.
A ninth death has been confirmed in the aftermath of Cyclone Gabrielle that has devastated parts of the North Island this week.
A body was found this morning in the Hawke's Bay region. National Civil Defence director of emergency management Roger Ball told reporters at a news conference this afternoon that a ninth person was now known to have died.
The cyclone hit on Sunday on the uppermost region of the North Island, before tracking down the east coast, causing widespread devastation. There has been severe damage to homes, farms, businesses and infrastructure, and the death toll includes a child and two firefighters.
Clean-up from the cyclone, which cut off towns, washed away farms, bridges and livestock and inundated homes, stranding people on rooftops, continued today, along with efforts to locate thousands still missing.
Power and communications have been badly affected, making it difficult to contact people, including those in remote areas.
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins yesterday called Gabrielle the biggest natural disaster to hit New Zealand this century, and warned that the death toll was likely to rise as crews made contact with hundreds of cut-off communities.
As of 9pm yesterday, there were 4928 registered with police as being out of touch with friends or family since the cyclone hit, authorities said today, while 885 people had registered as safe.
There were grave fears for a small number, about 10, of those still missing.
Police Deputy Commissioner Glenn Dunbier said rumours had “come and gone” about multiple deaths, but all known ones had been reported to date. They were working on contacting those still unaccounted for.
Police believe many do not have access to communication networks as about 62,000 properties remain without power.
Nearly 2000 people remained in evacuation centres in Hawke's Bay, while potentially up to 1000 people in the region remained beyond the reach of emergency services, The New Zealand Herald reported.
"We have our work cut out for us, we're focused on securing a reliable water supply, reaching isolated people and re-establishing phone and internet connections."
Cell towers were a priority. In Hawke’s Bay, 90 per cent were operating today, 80 per cent in Northland and 30 per cent in Gisborne. In Tairāwhiti, Chorus was working to restore broadband over the weekend.
Two temporary morgues have been set up in the Hawke's Bay region, which is largely rural but includes the towns of Napier, Hastings and Wairoa.
The disaster comes after New Zealand's largest city Auckland was last month hit by record rainfall that sparked floods, killing four people.
Meanwhile, Mr Ball said he had received concerning reports of threatening behaviour towards people delivering and restocking essential supplies.
"Please, I do understand the stress that many of you will be going through, but it's absolutely essential that the people delivering supplies are able to do their job without anybody hassling them. Otherwise it's going to take far longer to get everything restocked."
Public service staff had been going above and beyond during the response, including Corrections staff at Hawke's Bay Regional Prison, who had been working extra shifts and sleeping on site to keep the facility going, he said.
Mr Ball said the public and essential workers had shown what they were made of during this emergency. "Time and again we have shown that we are a nation that will look out for one another in times of need and that is something to be very proud of."
Civil Defence says the landslide risk in Auckland's Piha and Muriwai remains high. About 20 homes were evacuated in Piha last night due to land instability, and an exclusion zone is in place for a large part of Muriwai.
Auckland's emergency management controller Adam Maggs told RNZ's Morning Report today that engineers were assessing roads and land and people who aren't residents should stay away from the coast.
In Gisborne, power and limited access to water has been restored for the majority of locals.
Mayor Rehette Stoltz says they're still trying to get the water plant up and running.
Tairāwhiti has been one of the worst-hit regions and Stoltz said today they were just trying to make sure that residents were safe.
In Napier, power has also been restored in some parts of the city - an overwhelming relief for residents. Some homes were being assessed across the region, with locals beginning to return if they are safe.
Speculation on deaths ‘no good’
The public has been warned against believing "outlandish claims" about a large number of fatalities following Cyclone Gabrielle.
Police yesterday confirmed the death of a woman in Puketapu, near Napier. Marie Greene was found yesterday in the roof cavity of her home and is believed to have died after being caught in floodwaters.
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said yesterday people needed to be prepared for more deaths, but he was not aware of any more that had not already been reported.
"It’s no good to anybody speculating about how many people may have been injured or how many people may have died in this tragedy," Mr Hipkins said.
"We will certainly share that information as soon as we can but I have heard some outlandish claims out there at the moment that there is no evidence to support. All I will say is that we will report verified information as soon as we are in a position to do that."
Mr Hipkins provided an update on the Government’s response to Gabrielle after yesterday visiting areas devastated by the storm.
He visited Napier, Esk Valley and other areas of Hawke’s Bay with Emergency Management Minister Kieran McAnulty, MP for Napier Stuart Nash and MP for Ikaroa-Rāwhiti Meka Whaitiri.
"To put it really simply, it is really rough up there," Mr Hipkins said. "There is still no power in Napier but every effort is being made to restore it as soon as possible."
He said he saw trapped floodwaters with nowhere to go, "making new lakes out of farmland and settling to destroy orchards and crops".
There was still a huge way to go in response, with some small communities still cut off and isolated, Mr Hipkins said.
Mr Hipkins said food and other supplies were making their way in through road and sea, and connectivity was returning - better in some areas than others.
"I saw first-hand today, though, just how much Cyclone Gabrielle is going to affect the whole country. We do need to prepare ourselves for the fact that it’s going to disrupt some parts of our food supply."
The Government needed to focus on prioritisation, he said.
"That doesn’t mean we are not going to do things. It means we are having to carefully think about where we deploy resources and what order we deploy them in so we can get to the most urgent needs first."
That was essential in any emergency response, he said.
There was is no question Gabrielle was a "major catastrophic event".
"It is going to take us some time to get through this immediate emergency response phase - some parts are going to get through the emergency response faster than others," he said.
"This is undoubtedly the biggest natural disaster that we’ve seen probably this century. The scale of the damage is considerable. Because it covers such a large geographical area, we know that it’s going to take some time to really get a handle on exactly the extent of the damage and how long it’s going to take to fix that damage."
Meanwhile, the Prime Minister isn't ruling out a form of wage subsidy for people affected by Cyclone Gabrielle.
Mr Hipkins says the focus so far has been on the immediate response, but thought is being given to what short and long-term support could be provided and he will have discussions with Finance Minister Grant Robertson this weekend.
- RNZ, Reuters and NZ Herald
