WELLINGTON, Feb 17 (NNN-XINHUA) – Unprecedented floods and landslides have left eight people dead and more than 3,500 others missing, as Cyclone Gabrielle lashes New Zealand’s North Island this week.
About 10,000 people have been displaced by the adverse event, the level of which New Zealand has not seen, since the Christchurch earthquake in Feb, 2011, the authorities said.
“This is the biggest natural disaster seen this century with a considerable scale of damage,” Prime Minister, Chris Hipkins, told media today, in the Hawke’s Bay, which has been severely damaged by floods.
The eight deaths in the extreme storm include a child, whose body was found in Eskdale today. The two-year-old girl was believed to have been caught in rising water yesterday, police said.
The body of a volunteer firefighter was also recovered from a landslide in Muriwai, Auckland, yesterday.
“The whole country will be feeling for them at the moment,” Hipkins said, adding that, there will be more fatalities.
The death toll increased fast yesterday and today.
While a large number of the missing reports are expected to be the result of communication lines being down, police can confirm that there are several people missing in the Hawke’s Bay and Tairawhiti areas, and are now focused on critical support for the Eastern District.
Gisborne residents, on the east coast, were asked to stop using water as the region’s water plant has failed.
“We are throwing everything at it,” Hipkins said, adding that, officials are working as quickly as possible to get people into accommodation.
Police said, more than 70 staff have been redeployed from other parts of New Zealand to Hawke’s Bay and Tairawhiti, to support recovery efforts and provide community reassurance.
“As telecommunication services start to come back online, the police anticipate an increase in the number of reports of missing people, found people, damage to property, and demand for basic resources such as food, water and fuel,” said police.
New Zealand declared state of emergency on Monday, the third time in the country’s history, followed by widespread power outages, flight cancellations and school closures in the North Island.
This is only two weeks after Auckland and the adjacent region Waikato were inundated by record downpours and floods. Four people were killed in the disaster two weeks ago, mainly in Auckland, the country’s largest city.– NNN-XINHUA
